


Quintessence Quest: A Tiger among Lions

by GoldenQuil



Series: Quintessence Quest [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Bisexual Lance (Voltron), F/M, Gay Keith (Voltron), M/M, Voltron OC - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-12
Updated: 2021-01-18
Packaged: 2021-02-28 18:34:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 27,291
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23111785
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GoldenQuil/pseuds/GoldenQuil
Summary: Lance and Pidge go on a mission to try and locate Matt. However things go south and Lance is captured and taken as Prisoner to the High Priestess herself but a certain BOM member in disguise will help him escape. polygamous relationship between Lance, Keith and Kylee ( my OC). polygamous relationship between Allura, Lotor and Rigel ( my OC)
Relationships: Allura/Lotor (Voltron), Keith/Lance (Voltron)
Series: Quintessence Quest [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1664509
Kudos: 34





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Voltron because believe me my series would be cannon if I did. Also i did not write all of this on my own, this was co-written with tumblr user: binart, Chapter 1 was written by them. However, i do own my Voltron OC: Kylee. side note: you can follow the tag #quintessencequestau on instagram. feel free to make fan art

This was it. Pidge could feel it.

Matt was rescued by a group of resistance fighters; she knew this from the scant footage she was able to track down when delving into databases during some of their attacks on Galra cruisers and facilities. From there, Pidge was able to match the uniforms the resistance wore to the particular faction that rescued Matt. She sought out any way to track any individual down—bribing shady aliens at various outposts and cities rife with information, galra prisoner records, surveillance footage—and eventually hit a lead with an ID tracker used by the resistance faction she was looking for. She didn't know who the ID number was assigned to—their alien features displayed on the information screen were entirely unrecognizable. But they would hopefully at least offer another lead. If they didn't know Matt, they could point her towards someone who did. If they didn't know anyone, they could point her towards whatever base of operation they worked out of. She was a paladin of Voltron, so earning their trust likely wouldn't be a huge issue.  
The ID's signal was located about 30 light years away, so Pidge quickly approached Allura with her plan at the castle of lion's bridge. Though they were taking a few quintants off after a particularly nasty skirmish, she knew Allura spent most of her time there. Pidge's neck was still a bit sore from being whipped in every which direction when a fleet ambushed them, and she could still vaguely recall the sensation of hurtling through zero-G after being blasted with the edge of one of the galra's ion cannons.

The first day after the battle was dedicated to the entire team doing ship repair since externally there was an extensive amount of damage. They worked for hours and hours together with Coran, Pidge, and Hunk heading the operation, and later all collapsed in the living area to eat and watch old Altean cinema and rest up.  
After that, internal repairs commenced. Pidge took care of the majority of rerouting power along with Coran, and Hunk went about repairing damaged circuitry and appliances. They hit a snag however, when Hunk's repair tool kit ran low on a vital soldering material, and he couldn't continue working. 

The only option was to go out and find the rare elements needed to make the material, or to find a vendor that sold it. They opted for the latter.  
GAC in hand, Hunk, Coran, and Keith (as their self-appointed body guard in case anything went wrong) took a small craft and headed towards a local space mall. The others were told to sit tight and take it easy until they returned.  
Like Pidge would do that, though. Spare time was something she was often without, and so when the opportunity arose to do some digging around to find her family, she did so.  
Pidge hurried into the bridge were, as she expected, Allura was observing the local star system on the ship's system, and quickly explained the situation. Shiro listened in from beside them, arms crossed in thought, and Allura, ever intent on helping her find lost family, was more than happy to portal her over to the location. She instructed Pidge to prepare the green lion so she could send her through. Allura mentioned she was hoping to spend some time together, but understood her family took precedence over that.  
Shiro, who had been in the bridge initially to talk to Allura, asked Pidge what she had found specially that gave her the lead. She explained the ID tracking device, and he smiled. Only Pidge would be able to figure out something like that.

"Why don't I go with you? He asked. 

"If you don't know anything about the resistance member, there's always the possibility they're not as friendly as you'd hope." Pidge snorted.

"Well, the system they're located in is just about dead, and there's no sign of galra chatter or anything. All they're doing is sending regular uploads of some kind of transmission data at regular intervals.. Probably just a low ranking member sending relevant information to higher command, so not someone I think I need to worry too much about."

"Still," Shiro presses. "It doesn't hurt to play it safe.. I'd rather wait until the other get back, so we could all go." Pidge looked at the dark circles hanging under Shiro's eyes, and felt a pang of sympathy. She knew it was tough being in a commanding position; recalling her father returning home after long days, exhausted from leading an entire team of people. "It'll just be a couple of vargas.." Lance peeked his head around the corner in then strode in, drawn by the voices of his teammates.

"It'll be fine, Shiro," Pidge insisted, voice low. Despite understanding where he was coming from and not wanting to make things hard for him, she also had no intention of waiting. she had a lead and she was going to pursue it now. "You guys should stay here and get some rest." Shiro looked about to protest, but Pidge cut him off. "Besides! I won't be going alone." She snagged Lance's arm as he approached and maneuvered him to face Shiro. "Lance is coming with me. Right, Lance?"

Lance craned his head back to see Pidge's burning stare in his peripheral , and whipped it back to face Shiro. "Yes, absolutely." His face was extremely serious, and he met Shiro's gaze with an expression of stone cold absolution. Then he looked back at Pidge and stage whispered, "What are we doing?"

Allura chuckled, and Shiro let out an amused sound through his nose. Pidge let go of Lance's arm and stage whispered behind her hand back, "Following a lead on my brother and letting these two have a day off." Lance let out a quiet oh, and nodded resolutely.  
"Right. I knew that." He slung his arm around Pidge's shoulder and smiled charmingly at the two in front of him. " Don't worry guys, me and Pidge got this. We'll track down the lead, and watch each other's backs. Buddy System." Pidge nodded along with him.  
Folding his arms together, Shiro looked upon the two fondly, and exasperated, gave in.

"Alright, just keep in radio contact the entire time, and be careful, okay?"

They gave their best salutes possible while still hooking their shoulders together, then detangled themselves and made their way to the green lion.  
As they approached the base, Pidge quickly filled Lance in on the specifics. He whistled. "Nice detective work, Pidge." She beamed. "So basically.. We go in there, hopefully meet up with this resistance member guy, and get as many clues as possible?" She nodded. "What if it's not them, though?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, I'm pretty sure the Galra wouldn't be too fond of any resistance members. What better way to lure them in than to steal one of their IDs and wait for them to go check things out, y'know?" Pidge grumbled in irritation.  
"Were you not listening to what I said? There is zero galra chatter in this sector, so it's pretty unlikely they've got anyone stationed around here." Lance hummed, still unconvinced. "And the IDs are embedded inside of certain resistance members. That way, if they go MIA or uh, die, they can easily be tracked."

She turned her gaze back to the lion's viewport. "This guy is still listed as an active member in the database I hacked into, and his vitals are reading just fine." She pushed the joysticks forward, speeding up their descent. "Trust me, we won't be long." Lance conceded, giving her an alright before he went to fiddle with his bayard.

There was always that worried, paranoid twitch in the back of her mind that always assumed the worst. Always went to the terrible 'what ifs' which often centered around the well-being of her dad and brother. Lance tapped his foot in an uneven pattern on the floor of the lion and started humming. She shook her head. It was most likely the two would drop in, get what they needed, then get back to the castle and resume the search for her brother and father. But even in the unlikely scenario that things did get dicey, she was a paladin of voltron. So was Lance. If anyone was capable of taking risks and coming through unscathed, it was them.

Hidden among a landscape of asteroids was were Pidge and Lance found themselves. The green lion weaved through the debris of the area before approaching their objective; a large industrial structure built within a larger asteroid. It jutted out from the dense space rock, but still hid itself well with a similar color scheme and simplistic, blocky shapes to the exterior of the structure.

"Is that it?" Lance asked from beside Pidge. Though she offered the seat behind her own in the cockpit, Lance argued he couldn't see well enough and insisted on hovering next to her. She nodded, then tilted the steering controls forward and they descended towards the building.

"So the security system was pretty well built, but I've already bypassed pretty much everything like, an hour ago. Other than a couple doors, I've already got the entire situation on lockdown." Lance gave another impressed whistle at that, and Pidge couldn't help but to smile. She was pretty impressive.

They approached some massive docking bay doors, but decided against entering through since if they did have any bad company, that's where they'd expect them to enter. It would be a much safer idea to enter via a now unsecured ventilation system underneath the building. Pidge and Lance fastened their gear, then launched out into the vacuum of space in an exhilarating rush. The sudden burst of speed into zero-G made Pidge's breath catch in her throat, but Lance seemed downright excited.

"This never gets old!" Lance laughed, almost breathlessly as they hurdled towards the entrance vent, guided by their suits navigation system. Pidge raised her forearm towards the approaching dark alloyed surface.

"Alright, here we go." Almost simultaneously, their suits explosively deployed the tethering system, which whisked towards and then fastened itself with a dull clang to the surface. Once secured, the tethers began to detract back into their suits, pulling the two inwards. They landed soundlessly, and gave each other a thumbs up for the successful maneuver. Pidge breached the ventilation system with her bayard and they both slipped inside. The inside of the facility mirrored the exterior with it's dull, metallic colors and industrial structure. Their lightly clanging footsteps seemed to echo through the corridors as Pidge led them towards the location of the resistance member.

"My initial scans of the place didn't detect any lifeforms here at all," she started, tapping at the map screen her suit displayed. Lance made a noise of confusion as they walked side by side.

"Wait, what? Why are we looking for the resistance member here then?" His furrowed brow was much easier to see without his visor to obstruct his expression, as the two had earlier removed their helmets after realizing they were in an oxygen rich environment.

"The ID tracker, remember?" The small device fit snugly in one of her side pockets, and Pidge quickly pulled it out and brandished it towards Lance. "This place may be able to interfere with our local scanners and block us from being able to track life signatures, but I'm pretty sure this tracker syncs up with a database the rebellion maintains in some remote location or something. So we can use this to find them, even if our other scanners don't work."

"..Okay, yeah, that makes sense." Lance crossed his arms and looked up in thought, then peered suspiciously back towards Pidge. "Where'd you say you found that thing again?"

Pidge looked away uncomfortably. "uh, well.." She'd been hoping he wouldn't ask, as she was still coming to terms with it herself. "..I came across some wreckage of a galra cruiser and some ships that matched what the rebellion's look like, and when I went looking for some survivors inside, I found it."

Lance's expression shifted to something more uncomfortable as well. "Oh.. Well, was there anyone..?" The question, though left unsaid, was obvious. She shook her head, and he visibly deflated.

There weren't any survivors. The ships had been ripped apart and the interior with all of its inhabitants had been exposed to the vacuum of space immediately. Pidge had floated past one two many corpses with agonized expressions on their faces that she considered cutting her search short. In the end, she left with a vital clue, and an experience she wasn't keen on sharing with the others.

"Hey." She felt a sympathetic hand on her shoulder and slowed down her pace to look up at lance. "That must have been pretty messed up to see, Pidge," he empathized, giving her a gentle squeeze on the shoulder. "I'm sorry you had to go through that."

In a moment of genuine surprise for Pidge, she found herself thinking of Shiro. It almost felt like it should be him offering up those words of comfort. Not the goofy blue paladin. Maybe he wasn't as goofy or immature as Pidge thought he was.

She quickly shook herself out of the train of thought. Interpersonal reflections could be saved for later; for now, the two had a mission to complete. She smiled and once again held up the tracker.

"Thanks.. I at least got this, though. And that's one step closer to Matt and dad."

He flashed her a grin and nodded, gripping his helmet more tightly under his arm. "Right. Let's find that rebellion guy and make him tell us where they are." With a quick flick of her wrist, Pidge enlarged the map display in front of her to show Lance exactly where they were headed.

"We're already pretty close, just around the corner here..." Blue light flashed within Lance's free hand and quickly materialized into his bayard. Pidge gave him a flat look.

"What? We don't know what could happen in there!" He reasoned, and while that was true, Pidge didn't want to potentially scare away someone that could be the key to finding her family.

"Yeah, but just—play it cool, alright? If they get spooked and attack, use your shield. No pointing guns at the rebellion!"

"If it's the rebellion!" Lance hissed, rifle raised at the door they approached.

"Shh!" Pidge pulled up the command system on the data screen beside the door. Wanting to be helpful, Lance cautiously pressed an ear up to the door. Nothing seemed to permeate the thick, metallic material, though Lance could feel a strange vibration against his cheek; Similar to the vibrations he'd feel in his lion whenever Allura would wormhole them to various locations.  
Suddenly overcome with a growing feeling of apprehension, Lance leaned back.

"Hey, I really don't know if this is a good idea.. I'm getting some bad vibes, Pidge." Realizing what he just said, he chuckled nervously. "...Literally. The door is vibrating." 

Undeterred, Pidge continued typing away on the console. "I can't even count the number of different space anomalies that would make a massive complex built into an asteroid vibrate slightly, Lance. It's fine." An affirming beeping noise sounded from the console, and Pidge made a noise of surprise, eyes glued to the screen.

"Oh, hold on.." The door began emanating a strange buzzing noise, and Lance jerked back.

"What, why?! What's happening?!" The edge in Lance's voice was growing more frantic as a creeping panic began to set in. Pidge quickly shoved her helmet on and strode over next to Lance, activating her shield, then bayard. Lance frantically copied her.

"The door actually seems to be.. a very small portal?" Paranoia was quickly becoming understandable suspicion, but Pidge tried to remain calm, hopeful that this was still the next lead to her family. "Could be another security measure the rebellion has to keep themselves safe from attack.. somehow." She double checked the coordinates on the tracker, and they matched where ever the portal led to. "Let's be careful, though, just in case."

Lance audibly swallowed, bayard posed at the ready next to his shield. Please be a false alarm please be a false alarm please be a false alarm-  
The door hissed, releasing a bit of atmospheric pressure, before sliding open quickly.  
The containment pod containing the comatose rebellion member off to the side of the room barely registered in Lance's peripheral vision as his body moved on its own, shoving Pidge off to the side as a bright beam of light from the massive canon 20 feet ahead of them slammed into him. He heard Pidge scream, then blinding brightness, then nothing.  
—  
Lance didn't register when he came to—eyelids too heavy to even open. Not that he would think to open them; his mind felt light years away from connecting to his body. There was a stillness in the dry air that made him feel like he was floating. He heard voices nearby.  
"Its internal organs almost burst from our weakest tractor beam, are you sure—" A rough voice rasped, sounding like one of Lance's uncles that smoked too many cigars and always smelled like ash when he pulled him in for hugs.  
"I am." A sharp, gravely voice cut the other one off. The words warbled strangely, like the chickens would back at his parent's farm. He felt prodding around his face, but couldn't muster up enough energy to open his eyes.  
Then someone did it for him, and he saw them smile, wickedly pleased at the sight before them.  
"We caught a paladin."


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance has abit of break down and Kylee hears about the new test subject

(Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Voltron because believe me my series would be cannon if I did. Also i did not write all of this on my own, this was co-written with tumblr user: binart, a large majority of Chapter 1-5 was written by them. However, i do own my Voltron OC: Kylee. side note: you can follow the tag #quintessencequestau on instagram. feel free to make fan art.)

* * *

Whatever had been injected into Lance's system when he woke up initially had quickly worked its way out, leaving him with a dull, heavy ache all throughout his body. He could now move and look around a bit more easily; taking in the surroundings of the small, dark cell he was unceremoniously dropped into an hour or so before.

After the two scruffy aliens had finished taunting him and squishing their gross alien hands all over his face, the warble-voiced one gleefully informed him they would be contacting a Galra general in the area. They'd be eating well for Deca-Phoebs off the GAC Lance's capture would pull in for them, and Lance could only stare up at them in horror from the ease of which they had decided to sell him off.

He sat up with some difficulty and tried to quell the fear and panic taking up residence in his chest, making his eyes annoyingly hot. Lance would have done something when he started regaining feeling in his limbs again, but whoever the aliens were who had attacked them (hopefully Pidge had managed to get away, but Lance couldn't remember anything after he got hit with.. whatever that was) had also binded his arms and legs with some extremely tough looking industrial binds. With his arms folded behind him, and legs together, he couldn't summon his bayard, couldn't fight, couldn't even try to run.

Lance pulled his legs up to his chest and tried to breathe. He really hoped Pidge made it out okay.

Several pairs of footsteps approached the door, and before Lance had any time to collect himself, the door screeched open, slamming against the wall from the force of the push. Squinting from the brightness pouring into the dark cell, Lance's eyes met those of a Galra he didn't recognize, who swiftly seized him by the jaw and wrenched him up against the wall. Galra sentries poured in the room, followed by the scruffy raiders.

"Hm." They seemed to scrutinize Lance, pushing his head against the hard surface, before coming to their conclusion.

"I know this one. They're of Voltron, alright." The Galra turned his head, nonchalantly addressing one of his troops. "Pay them," he commanded, then turned his attention back to Lance as he struggled.

"Let me ask you something. Do you recognize me, paladin?" The galra asked, tone light. Lance cracked a lid open and frantically studied their face. Furry, purple face, big koala ears, and an ugly scar trailing from his chin to his left cheek. Lance had no idea who they were.

"..N-No.." Lance clenched his teeth together as the grip on his face tightened. The Galra's indifferent expression face tightened into an angry growl.

"Wrong answer." They reared back their free hand, formed a fist, and connected it with Lance's face.

* * *

It took one look at Pidge stumbling out of the green lion after it had landed back in the castle of lions—words rushed and hysterical, nearly indecipherable through her tears, Lance nowhere to be seen—before Shiro understood what had happened.

Keith paced back and forth on the floor of the bridge, staring down at a heartbroken Pidge. Crouching down next to her, Hunk's supportive grip on her small shoulder tightened when Keith raised his voice.

"Why didn't you just wait?!" He was exhausted after running around all day trying to track down a vendor selling the toolkit Hunk needed, and his voice was dry and hoarse from hours of bartering. Pidge hung her head, and it made him seethe. "No, I get it. You had a clue to track down your family, and you didn't stop to think about how dangerous things could get. You just had to go right then and there, even if that meant putting yourself—" his voice cracked. "—and Lance in danger!"

"Keith." Shiro cut in, stepping towards him and placing a hand against his chestplate. "It was my call." Hunk's eyes widened in hurt, staring up in disbelief at what Shiro said. Allura looked down and away in discomfort. "We need to focus less on who to blame, and more on what we need to do to get Lance back, alright?"

Keith sharply turned away from the group, effectively silenced. "Hey, Pidge?" Hunk timidly cut in. "You said the ID tracker's coordinates changed after Lance got taken, right?" She miserably nodded. "So the best place to start would probably be the new coordinates. Lance might still be nearby."

"It's probably another trap," Keith growled.

"So be it." Shiro's tone held a sense of finality to it, and the group all stood in unison. "We'll be ready."

* * *

Completely disoriented, Lance once again found himself jolted back into consciousness. The first thing that registered was a pounding in the side of his head, where he had gotten punched earlier. He felt his skin pull uncomfortably around a tender spot just below his eye, and realized there was a mostly crusted-shut cut there, still oozing blood slightly. His arms and legs were strapped to a slanted table, angling him towards the door of the small cell.

"Finally awake, I see." From beside him, a familiar deep voice startled him. Lance tried to turn his head, but could only make out the individual when they decided to step into his view. The same Galra from before folded his hands behind his back, inspecting Lance like a garrison commander. His outfit was a uniform Lance had often seen on ranked officers in the Galra empire, which he assumed would make this guy something like a commander.

"I'm surprised how fragile you are, you know," He started, leaning in closely to Lance's face with his own. "The trap those scavengers used to secure you was almost enough to kill you. Imagine that." Lance tried to tug at his restraints, eager to get away from the Galra's foul breath.

"A paladin of voltron, nearly brought down by tech from the Dalterion Belt, of all places." Their laugh was tinged with something malicious, and Lance once again wracked his brain to see if he recognized who they were.

But nothing came to mind. His laughter died off as he turned back to Lance.

"Right, yeah, laughable. Totally. The Dalterion Belt?! Unbelievable!" Lance's head was aching, and he was half tempted to ask the commander-guy to just get to the point. "Anyway, who exactly are you? I didn't get your name before you, y'know, knocked me out."

The galra's pleased grin sunk into an angry scowl, but then he appeared to catch himself—just as quickly as it appeared, it was gone. The tight lipped smile returned, and he drew in closer. Lance belatedly realized there were some sentries standing guard in the room, and suddenly felt very cramped and unsafe.

"I am second lieutenant Vargo, and you, pilot of the blue lion—" his voice turned venomous, overflowing with malice and resentment. "—You were responsible for the complete annihilation of my first fleet."

"I.." Lance felt a wash of dread come over him. Being reminded that he and his team routinely destroyed countless fleets wasn't something Lance enjoyed. It was self defense, it was fighting for the freedom of the universe, but killing was still killing, even if the soldiers whose lives they ended did arguably deserve it. Second Lieutenant Vargo leaned back, looking down past his nose at Lance.

"Though I won't be able to deliver the empire two paladins as I had hoped, I'm extremely pleased that the one I am handing over is the very same one responsible for my past defeat and demotion." Lance sucked in a breath from the surprising revelation. He then let out an exasperated sigh, despite the situation.

"So you're not actually mad I wiped out your whole team or anything, you're mad you lost and got demoted? Can you get any more evil and petty?" Vargo took a moment to take in Lance's words, silent. Contemplating. He turned his back towards him for a moment, but then whipped back around.

In an instant, agony exploded against his eye. Lance screamed as he felt blood splatter and run down his cheek. The second lieutenant pulled a small blade back from Lance's face, and he realized that he couldn't see out of his left eye. It was just—red.

No. No way. He squeezed his lids shut as he violently fought against his restraints, not missing the heavy slide of something, not blood running down his face as well. The second lieutenant started to chuckle once again, drowned out by Lance's panicked cries.

"Yes, paladin, I think I can."

Things were a blur after that. A strange looking soldier entered the room and injected something directly into Lance's arm, and his struggling died out. Vargo ordered his cell be transported and ready for the witches arrival, and despite the heavy sedation coursing through his bloodstream, his heartbeat picked up, rife with fear of being handed over to someone assumedly higher up in ranking from the empire.

Loosely swaying his head and ignoring the aching throb in the right side of his face, Lance wondered what was going to happen to him. Were they going to try to ransom him off to his team? He imagined having to watch them through a screen as his captors demanded whatever they wanted—Voltron, probably—and forcing them to decide whether or not his life was more important than the key to saving the entire universe.

His throat felt thick with anxiety, and bile forced its way up his esophagus and onto the floor. Lance coughed unevenly, eyes leaking and burning.

No, he wasn't that important. His team would never agree to something so foolish. Even if they wanted to, they couldn't.

But maybe the galra would keep things simple and just kill him. One less paladin to worry about trying to take them down. They were all about efficiency, anyway. Lance realized he was probably going to die soon.

A disturbing laugh bubbled up into the back of his throat. They dealt with death every other day, and while they were usually in some form of danger, the finality of death hadn't really hit him until now. He'd never see his team again; He'd never see Earth again.

The room jerked slightly to the left, then felt like it was being pulled upwards. Heavy machinery whirred all around him, echoing loudly through his cell. His cell. No, this was Probably going to be his execution chamber.

Breath drawing in raggedly, Lance allowed himself to cry.

* * *

Kylee heard the excited chatter among their superiors earlier that quintant that there was a VIP subject being transported to one of their sector's labs that the Priestess Haggar was going to be overseeing herself. Having seen the grotesque abominations so commonplace here that were never important enough for her to directly oversee, they wondered exactly what sort of specimen could garner the witch's attention.

Completing a chemical transfer to the containment pods in the lab, they made their way into the main area of the testing facility, ducking and dodging out of the view of their superiors. It hadn't been very long since they had been transferred to this sector, and Kylee wanted to bring as little attention to themselves as possible considering they were an undercover agent for the Blade of Marmora.

That was probably why they had managed to last as long as they had so far in what was considered one of the most hostile, "innovative" (they would probably use a word closer to 'heinous,' but semantics were best left unsaid to the individuals doing their experiments here) sectors of the empire as a member of the Blade.

Kylee knew all too well the cruelties one could face at the hands of Haggar; They hadn't been there very long but already had bore witness to her horrifying experiments. They had never seen the witch themselves (and they were a long way from having the clearance to so so), but their lab was always dumped with her leftover experiments after she had done whatever it was she did with them.

They felt a pang of pity for the creature that was set to face whatever she had in store for them. Kylee had a larger mission they had to dedicate themselves to, however, and while they hoped their undercover work here would help as many people as possible, they knew they couldn't save everyone. The unfortunate experiments they observed had lesser chances of being liberated than entire planets under Galran rule. Most of the druids and scientists here probably didn't even consider most of the subjects to be alive beings capable of thought and emotion, even though almost all of them were.

But Kylee knew rescue would still prove impossible; Especially since blowing their cover would probably mean immediate death. For both them and whoever they tried to help.

So Kylee remained quiet. They did as they were told. They were not in a position to overthrow the empire yet and was merely a small part of a larger operation. They would have to bide their time until then.

A crowd of galran scientists passed through the darkened hallway Kylee had stepped into, avoiding the translucent dividers along the floors and walls separating Kylee's regular transport route and regular hallway, along with a group of sentries heading in the same direction. The docking bay was that way, so they were probably going to watch the new shipment arrive. They had no interest in being late with their quintessence supply delivery, however, and made a beeline towards the lab they worked in.

The druid Zolya that Kylee worked under, the very same one who initiated Kylee into the group of druids because of their unique attributes and abilities, was no stranger to physical discipline when rules were not followed, and the injuries hidden beneath his druid robes from last pheob had only just started to heal. Though they had only one rank difference between the two of them, the group of magic imbued Galrans clearly valued seniority highly, and Kylee was considered more of a lackey than anything.

Working undercover wasn't always easy, they supposed. Kylee considered himself pretty tough, though. Half-breeds were lowly regarded in Galra society, and he had a rough life leading up to this point as the only half-galra, half-human that he knew of in existence.

"Ah, there you are." The doors biometric scanner beeped in affirmation and opened to allow Kylee into the large lab area, and a tall, darkly robed druid acknowledged them before turning back to their screen.

No longer needing prompting at this point, kylee held the oblong cylindrical containment tube full of the concentrated quintessence mixture they had been transporting and approached a 7 foot tall tank area. Their tail swished slightly for balance as they tipped the tube and inserted it into a plugging area designed for the component, and with a hiss, pneumatic chambers spun it into the correct position, ready for the deposit of quintessence into the testing tank. It drained from the tube quickly, leaving no remnants, before the dark liquid mixed with the lighter fluid already in the tank.

Despite there being no point where the quintessence met the air of the lab room, Kylee felt a tingle wash across their striped face from the proximity of the liquid. Frequent exposure to quintessence all their life is how Kylee got there in the first place; The markings on their face and minor magical abilities, which also let them alter their skin slightly to better fit in with the druids, made them the perfect agent to send undercover to learn the inner workings of the more magical side of the Galran empire's military.

"Assume your station," Zolya commanded impatiently from afar, intently typing away at the console. The small data station behind the tanks in the lab was where Kylee did their work monitoring the different levels of whatever subject was brought to them. They weren't allowed to know what they tested for yet (still too new to the current druid division), or anything about the quintessence mixtures they transported to and from the lab; only that it was considered very hazardous to handle the mixture in any way, and that any electronic transportation systems often broke down under the radiation emitted by the concoction.

Kylee had built up something of a tolerance for it early on in his life. His father, previously a blade member before his death, prepared Kylee for the difficulties they would undoubtedly face later in life. The exposure, while initially thought would be lethal, actually proved incredibly useful after Kylee joined the blade. Infiltrating the druid ranks within the Galran empire was surprisingly easy once it was realized Kylee possessed abilities and tolerances that suddenly took the intense hassle out of transporting something as finicky as quintessence, which the empire was known to deal with in massive quantities.

Soon after realizing this, Kylee was put undercover and introduced into the empire's ranks in a small division, and the druids opted for a manual transport and handling system, using Kylee. Their division's efficiency skyrocketed, which did not go unnoticed. After proving their worth and earning the trust of the druids around them, Kylee was then re-assigned to the larger labs closest to the heart of the empire, where they were needed the most.

They had gone from an under-utilized blade member one quintant, to spending their days around high concentrations of quintessence the next, exposing themselves to the radiated output so that the scientists and druids didn't have to.

It was the perfect way to solidify themselves within the ranks of the druids, and slowly work to unravel the empire as a whole from within. It was grueling and dangerous, but Kylee knew they were the best fit for the position; They were the only one who could do this.

"Injection stabilization complete, sir," Kylee informed to the druid, knowing now their job was basically done. They had no subjects in this sector currently, and Kylee wondered if the VIP test subject would be put with them, or one of the several other labs within the massive ship they were stationed at.

"Good. It is vital every protocol is followed exactly, as we have a very important shipment arriving later today. I'm sure you've heard."

Well that answered their question. Kylee gave an affirming nod before asking, "Will I remain here to monitor the fluctuation levels of the tank then, sir?"

Beneath the druid's long, frightening mask, Kylee could almost see the snear they made. "Of course not. Our priestess will be accompanying the shipment for preparation before we begin testing."

They strode over to them, long hands folded behind their back as they surveyed the much smaller half-Galran. "You have proven to be useful for our work here, and the priestess of course knows of all those within our ranks, but you are not permitted to be in her presence. Only those of the highest rank in the order may even be near her, let alone speak with her." Kylee swallowed behind their own mask, uncomfortable at the sudden scrutiny.

The druid ushered them out of the way of the console and assumed control of it. "After the human has been prepped and the priestess takes her leave, your duty will be to simply transport and administer the injections created by the priestess herself while she is away. We don't want her to have to set eyes on a lowly half-breed, after all." They synced Kylee's control panel up with their own on the other side of the lab, then quickly retreated. Kylee watched them in awe, wondering if they realized what they just let slip.

Bothered by Kylee's characteristic quietness, the druid audibly exhaled through their nose and resumed typing away at their console. "You are dismissed." Kylee stiffened, knowing if they stayed longer than 10 ticks, disciplinary measures would be taken. They swiftly paced towards the exit, and as the door swished closed, Kylee turned and pushed their back up against the wall, staring down at the floor.

A human. They were bringing a human there. Kylee was going to see a human.

They had no idea there were other humans in these deep reaches of space. Though only half-human, Kylee felt an immediate connection to this individual.

They needed to see this new subject as soon as possible.


	3. Chapter 3

( Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Voltron because believe me my series would be cannon if I did. Also i did not write all of this on my own, this was co-written with tumblr user: binart, a large majority of Chapter 1-5 was written by them. However, i do own my Voltron OC: Kylee. side note: you can follow the tag #quintessencequestau on instagram. feel free to make fan art.)

* * *

"Commander." The witch's voice was sharp, low and dangerous as she took in the sight before her. Her surprise when a druid approached her chambers several varga ago unannounced—something all in her ranks knew not to do unless they were seeking an early death—quickly became a much more pleasant surprise when they delivered the news that a Voltron paladin had been captured and was on route to her main testing grounds.

The commander responsible for the capture—Vargo, she recognized—had taken complete credit for everything, though with his track record it seemed entirely doubtful. He was skilled in using his words to worm his way up through the ranks in the past, but those skills never did transfer over well to combat scenarios. He was lucky Zarkon only gave him the facial scar along with a demotion after his past failure against the Voltron coalition.

The commander had been awaiting her arrival at the docking bay, no doubt looking to use the capture as an opportunity to right those previous failings. She had little patience to deal with whatever deceitful nonsense he would undoubtedly have in store for her, and after a quick acknowledgement of his presence, the two entered the holding cell with no further preamble.

"His eye." she harshly prompted again when met with Vargo's silence. "What have you done to it?" He stiffly peered over at the unconscious paladin, slumped forward and ruined eye puffed out. Coagulated blood covered the area, but it was clear the wound was very recent. He cleared his throat.

"A-An unfortunate result of the struggle before his capture," he explained, folding his arms behind his back to hide the trembling in his hands. Haggar narrowed her faintly glowing eyes into slits.

"I have not been made aware of any gravitational beams—such as the one you apparently used to catch the paladin without incident, by your own accounts—to inflict lacerations," she hissed, and it was clear the commander knew his lies had been seen through. He squeezed his eyes shut, unable to speak or even meet her gaze. He could feel the sweat beginning to form on his face. Higher ranked officers had been struck down for lesser offenses than lying to the witch, and commander Vargo feared he would soon join them.

"..Though, I suppose this may present an opportunity.." he lifted his head to watch Haggar step towards the paladin. Her elongated fingers reached out to tilt his face up, and Lance groaned lightly at the jostling, still very much unconscious.

"I've dealt with affixing... augmentations to this particular species before," she spoke, seemingly to herself. Her grip on the paladin's face tightened slightly as she gave a dark chuckle, then turned back towards Vargo. "Lord Zarkon will be pleased to hear of your redeeming actions here today, commander. After I am through examining this specimen, I will report your success directly to him."

Vargo felt relief wash through him, now very thankful he had presented someone of high enough value to her that he wouldn't be killed for injuring them. He held no respect for the witch—someone so clearly not of Galran descent—but understood just how outranked he was, and how much he needed her good word to pull himself up the ranks. Her word would be vital if he were to ever stand on equal footing to those like Sendak, Zarkon's right hand soldier, someone he had always aspired to be more like.

"Vrepit sa!" Vargo saluted, but was mostly ignored by Haggar, now seeming to be enraptured by her new subject. Two druids entered from behind him—one sliding over to the back of the slanted table Lance was strapped to in the dark room, and the other eerily hovering next to him, staring down at the shorter galra.

"Return to your outpost for now, commander," they instructed coldly, and before the commander could attest to being ordered by some draped magician, they cut in. "The priestess will provide you with extra fleets, as we are certain the other paladins return to look for their teammate."

After taking one more look at the witch behind him, commander Vargo nodded and silently took his leave, hopeful that she would soon follow through and act as the stepping stone he needed her to be.

Though if he could provide additional paladins to the empire, surely renown and success would come to him even faster.

"Alright, everyone, we're approaching the facility, so be on guard," Shiro cautioned, and the team tightened their lion formation as the complex slowly came into view. Pidge's breath caught as she saw it for the second time. Things were completely different this time though, and it was all her fault. Her chest felt tight. If she only hadn't forced Lance to come with her, none of this would be happening. She found herself wishing she had just listened to Shiro.

Wanting to avoid the painful memories, she scanned over the numbers on her screen to get an idea of what was ahead of them.

"Okay," Pidge started. "It looks like there's a lot more Galra chatter in this quadrant than there was a couple of hours ago.." With a sinking feeling, she knew why.

"So they probably know we're coming. Great." Hunk's voice still sounded congested from crying on the way to his lion. He'd be lying if he said he wasn't upset at Pidge—or Shiro, for that matter—but mostly he was just terrified at what could be happening to Lance. Last time any of them had gotten caught it was Allura, and she was taken straight to Zarkon.

"Let them come," Keith growled, gripping his piloting yoke tight enough to whiten his knuckles beneath his gloves. "There more of them there are, the more likely we are to find one that can take us to Lance." Through their comms, he heard Shiro make an affirming sound, then lean forward in his seat.

"Right. Watch each others' backs, and stay close. We can't form Voltron without Lance, so we'll have to be careful."

Several dim flashes of lights popped up on their screens, drawing their attention to the much closer facility. Galra battle cruisers now surrounded it, and more began to portal into the vicinity. Cloaking technology replicated from Pidge's lion and applied to the rest of the group would keep them hidden, but not for much longer. Keith took a deep breath, itching to rush forward and start getting answers.

"Is everyone ready?" Allura asked, watching all of them through the screens pulled up in front of her from the castle of lions. They all agreed, and within moments the area lit up with the sounds of heavy battle.

His tongue was dry enough that he could feel it crack as he stirred.

Lance carefully opened an eye as his consciousness sluggishly returned, trying to resolutely ignore the dull throb on the left part of his face. The agonizing stinging had settled into a sharp, itching discomfort, and he could feel fluid dried on his cheek. His breathing began to grow erratic, but he quickly tried to calm himself.

Wherever he was, Lance knew he was probably on his own right now. He had to evaluate his situation and see if there was any way to contact his team to get him out of there. He could only hope that Pidge had gotten back to the team, and that they were on their way to bust him out of.. Wherever he was right now.

Peering around, he discovered he had once again been moved while he was knocked out.

The room he was in now was much more spacious; about 20 feet all around him, and the walls were all rounded. Craning his neck with effort, Lance tried to look beside and behind the table he was still strapped upright onto. It was too stiff to turn past his shoulder, however, so he instead tried to listen in to see if anyone was there with him.

"..H..Hello...?" His voice cracked out, hoarse and dry. His right arm ached where he felt a needle inserted into it, and he heard the gentle beeping of several Galran consoles all around him, as well as a steady blip close to his left ear. A heart monitor, maybe?

Clanking from the high metal ceiling above echoed throughout the room, causing Lance to jolt at the sudden startling sound. He could feel the back of his neck sweating, and belatedly realized the white armour of his paladin suit was missing. The exposed, vulnerable feeling that washed through him instantly put him more on edge than he already was.

"I-Is anyone there?!" he called out, panic seeping into his voice. He wondered why he was alone, and what was going to happen to him. When Allura had gotten captured before, they took her straight to Zarkon, hadn't they?

The door in front of him opened. Lance swallowed a gasp. His vision was still blurry from whatever they had used to knock him out, and he squinted as he saw someone approach.

It was a druid; though it was one much smaller than the ones he and his team had previously encountered in the past.

They carried a sleek non-descript briefcase in their hand, along with what looked like an IV drip on wheels. Their tail peeking out from the dark robes wrapped was around it as they dragged it towards Lance. They approached silently.

Lance struggled against his bindings, thrashing desperately as they stepped closer. "Who're you?!" They didn't answer, and as they stepped in front of Lance, they reached over beside him. "S-Stop!"

The druid paused for a moment, tilting their mask up at Lance, before silently extending their hand further and pulling a small rolling table towards the two of them. They seemed to almost gently set the briefcase down onto it, and began unlatching the clasps.

"What are you doing?!" Lance demanded, resuming his struggle against the table he was strapped against. They answered with more silence. Deft hands lifted the cover, and Lance could see a brightly glowing violet vial about the length of his hand. A needle-like attachment was placed beside the vial, and the druid set to work on assembling whatever that was. Lance tried to stop himself from hyperventilating.

"What're.. What're you gonna do with that..?" His voice was watery and fearful, and that seemed to be enough to cause the druid to falter for a moment. They tilted the needle injector and attached vial in their hand, as if contemplating what to do with it, then again looked up at Lance.

"...It's to prepare you for surgery," they explained, voice surprisingly quiet. They sounded nothing like the other druids who all seemed to speak with a creepy rasp. Lance inhaled sharply.

"Surgery..?!" They moved to attach the needle injector into a small tube that fed into the fluid hanging on the IV, pushing the sharp section into it with a hiss. Frustrated at being ignored, Lance jerked against his restraints. "What surgery?! Answer me!"

They continued to silently work at the IV drip until pulling a longer tube that trailed from the bottom of the bag of fluid. The end of the tube had a small connector that they pushed into the needle in Lance's arm. He tried to pull away from them, but the tubing clicked into place, now clearly very secured. They moved back to the vial of glowing liquid, and pressed their purple fingertip against a thumbprint sized scanner on the device.

With an affirming beep, it began dispensing the liquid into the translucent bag on fluid currently connected to Lance. He watched with sinking horror as it spread into the bag and diluted its transparency with its bright, neon glow.

"What is that?!" He could begin to feel warmth that seemed to emanate from the fluid, and feared the worst. Were they going to knock him out again? What sort of surgery did they plan on doing to him?

The druid's tail swished slightly before wrapping around the IV carrier and pulling it slightly closer. "..It's.." Lance stared at them as they spoke up, eye opened wide.

"..A form of liquid quintessence. Soluble in most fluids found within organic lifeforms." They sounded like they were reading a boring textbook definition instead of forcing into the veins of a very scared Lance. "It contaminates any living tissue within a fifteen foot radius, so I will be giving you your injections at regular intervals to strengthen your body for the surgery."

Lance grit his teeth. "Then aren't you being contaminated right now?" The druid shook their head so slightly he almost didn't notice.

"Due to.. prior exposure, I'm not affected." They didn't seem to intend to expand upon that, and turned back to the briefcase to close it. Lance watched the glowing quintessence liquid slowly begin to seep down the tube connected to his arm, the warmth increasing in intensity.

"...It will burn a bit," they warned in a mumbling tone, clicking the briefcase shut and pulling it away from the table. Lance's struggling resumed. This couldn't be happening.

"W-Why are you doing this?!" he was nearly hysterical at this point, and could feel a slight burn begin to spread across his arm. Tears prickled at the corners of his eyes. He wished his team was there with him. The druid watched his struggle with an almost subdued demeanor, looking down at the floor.

"Orders," they simply stated, and Lance's head sank. Of course. The burning began to spread even further into his shoulder, and he winced and shifted against the discomfort. His nose was beginning to run, and gravity pulled some welling-up tears down his cheeks. Lance nearly didn't notice when the druid moved in closer to him until he heard the rustle of their robes, then lifted his head up to come face-to-face with their creepy mask.

"You," they began, but paused, their muffled voice faltering as if unsure how to proceed. Lance was nearly overcome with the compulsion to smash his forehead against theirs, but the dull pounding in his face stopped him. From that close, he could hear them swallow.

"You are a paladin of voltron, aren't you..?" they notioned towards the door they entered from minutes prior, and Lance realized his chestplate was hung up a few feet next to it, blue voltron symbol taunting him from that distance away.

Lance narrowed his eye, lips twitching downwards into an angry grimace. "What do you care?!" They leaned in closer, undeterred. They were nearly bumping foreheads, and the druid dropped their voice to a harsh whisper.

"Answer the question."

He studied the mask in front of him, briefly wondering what kind of person was behind it, before the spreading heat pulled him from his thoughts. He let out an angry huff. "...I am."

They tilted their head to the side of Lance, speaking barely above a whisper into his ear.

"Then I'm going to get you out of here, human paladin."

They pulled back, and Lance's jaw slackened in surprise. "...What..?" They continued to step backwards while facing Lance, briefcase still in hand. From a little over three feet away, they paused, before speaking a final time.

"Knowledge or death, paladin."

The door swished closed as they left, and though those words meant nothing to Lance, and the slight burning now seeping into his chest, he couldn't help but feel a little bit of hopefulness from the strange encounter.

Who was that druid?

* * *

Keith could feel the Galran commander's gnarled fingers crack and shift beneath his heel as he ground his foot a bit harder. His screams seemed muted, and all Keith could focus on was the way the soldier's bones felt like rocks underneath his suit's shoes. He wondered if Lance was going through something like this right now.

He applied more pressure.

"S-Stop! Please!" Commander Vargo begged, face smeared against the cold floor of his fleet's commanding ship. His other hand was bound along with his feet behind him, and he struggled against the shameful position.

The red paladin seemed to respond to the pleading, and slowly lifted his foot off of his mutilated hand, now burning in agony. He whipped the appendage as close to his body as he could, and tried to flip himself over to face the paladin's surrounding him after their successful siege. He tried to look around to see if a single sentry remained, but only saw scraps of their metallic allow littering the compound.

A blur of green invaded his peripheral vision and he felt pain explode on his face.

He screamed, then instinctively used his free hand to cover the now injured area, and felt another sharp wave of pain and nausea course through him as he aggravated the broken bones in his hand.

"Shut up!" Pidge screamed back at the commander. She couldn't quell the emotion in her voice, and rapidly approached the cowering galra. "You were the one who handed Lance over to the empire, I checked the footage!" Her bayard lit up in her hand and she posed it threateningly in front of her, intent to use it very clear. "Where is he?!"

Panic seemed to overcome the commander as Pidge questioned him, but he quickly shifted into an angry grimace and struggled to turn onto his side, now facing the team. "I will not betray my empire!" he growled, and immediately Pidge's face morphed into an enraged scowl. Her bayard began to glow, but before she could dirty her hands, Shiro intervened.

"Pidge." His tone was even but final, and he approached the two of them with squared shoulders. They needed answers, and they needed them now, but they weren't going to resort to torture. Shiro wouldn't allow it, especially if it meant exposing someone as young as Pidge to it. He attempted to comfort her and place his hand on her shoulder, but she sharply shrugged him off and retreated back to Allura. Hunk was still, but his eyes were wide and expression livid. Shiro wasn't sure who the look was meant for.

He turned back to the galran, but before he could say anything, there was another brilliant flash of light, and a blast ripped through the air as a shot flew just past Shiro's robotic arm and nearly embedded itself into Vargo's skull. The sleek flooring exploded directly next to him, and he shrieked pathetically in fear as sharp debris flew is different directions.

"Hunk!" Shiro's displeased voice rang out as the yellow paladin marched forward, large bayard drawn and held in front of him. The two briefly made eye contact as Hunk walked past him, and for a moment Shiro wondered if Hunk would turn on him if he tried to intervene again; the tightly bound pure fury so evident in his features that he took a small step back and allowed his teammate to approach their captive.

He had never seen him that angry before.

"Lance. That's the name of the paladin you captured." Hunk looked down towards the shrunken soldier, and shifted his stance slightly before hefting his gun a bit higher. "He's like family to me, y'know? I'm sure the Galra have something like family." Commander Vargo stared up at him incredulously, and sniffed slightly as his now broken nose continued to gush.

Hunk leaned in, and pressed the firing end of his bayard against Vargo's chestplate.

"We'll find him, with or without you." It was a statement. There wasn't any trace of doubt in Hunk's words at all.

The circular muzzle of his weapon scraped slightly as he pushed it harder against the scuffed plating of Vargo's armor. "The only difference is that, in one of those cases, you bleed out on the floor all tied up and disgraced, and fade out into obscurity as a weak commander who fell to Voltron. Pick one."

Hunk powered up his bayard.

In that moment, when Vargo made eye contact with him, his expression was nearly vacant, mouth only slightly downturned. But it was his eyes; In his eyes he could see something cold and dark, and knew he should be very, very careful about what he did next.

But, he couldn't betray his empire. He was already well acquainted with the punishment for failure, but that was nothing compared to treason. A swift death here would be a blessing compared to that.

And yet sweat poured down his back as he stared up at his executioner. The others were behind him and didn't look like they were going to stop him.

He was going to die right now.

"I.." Vargo struggled against himself to find the right words to say. He couldn't. He couldn't.

The air within the ship stilled, quiet now save for the remains of his sentries occasionally twitching or crackling with diminishing electrical impulses.

"...The witch has him," he ground out, squeezing his eyes shut as if it would shield him from what he had just done.

Allura let out a quiet gasp, weaved through the others and immediately hefted him up with little effort. "Where?"

"One of her experiment facilities..! That's all I know..!" he gasped out, sagging in her grasp. His legs were still bound tightly behind him along with his other arm, which made the position he was held in unbalanced and unwieldy. Her grip tightened at his admission, however, and the vibrations from her shaking caused him to sway slightly.

"Which facility?! You must know more than that!"

"Only the druids and Lord Zarkon himself are permitted to know where the witch conducts her experiments..!" He struggled vainly to escape from her grasp. A plan was already forming in commander Vargo's mind; he needed to escape, to get as far away from these paladins as he could. He would outrun them, and he would outrun the witch who would undoubtedly hear of this.

In fact, he would outrun the entire damn empire if he had to. He could not bear the thought of dying as he was. He was going to rise to the top. He was going to be respected.

Allura dropped him back to the ground, seething. He coughed pathetically, and she was nearly overcome with the desire to crush the hand Keith had mangled earlier; before Shiro or herself could stop him. But it was clear they would get no quick answers from the one in front of them, and an idea quickly came to her. "Pidge, check the ship's last coordinates. We will start with that."

Her in-suit monitor lit up and Pidge quickly tracked down the information. Everyone was looking at her, silent with anticipation. Vargo perked up, seeing this as his best chance for escape. They didn't need him anymore, after all; they would pre-occupy themselves with that dead-end lead and leave him to escape and regroup.

Even if there was any chance they could track Haggar and her facility, he couldn't allow them to do so; it would be proof of his second failing. He would fall back, gather some fleets from some previous favors he had done through the years, and put an end to the Voltron coalition.

Tensing his ruined hand and silencing a yelp, he quietly reached behind him towards the hidden compartment in his suit; a small, quintessence-imbued dagger hidden within. It would make quick work of his bindings. Gripping would be extremely difficult, but he would manage, somehow.

"No you don't."

Keith stormed over, sensing something was amiss by the commander's silence, then when he noticed the dagger now slightly exposed sticking out from his hip area, lifted his heel up, and smashed it down against commander Vargo's face.


	4. Chapter 4

( Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Voltron because believe me my series would be cannon if I did. Also i did not write all of this on my own, this was co-written with tumblr user: binart, a large majority of Chapter 1-5 was written by them. However, i do own my Voltron OC: Kylee. side note: you can follow the tag #quintessencequestau on instagram. feel free to make fan art.)

* * *

Lance thought he had fallen asleep in the anti-gravity chambers they had at the Garrison again.

Surprisingly, the chambers were open to all aspiring cadets looking to learn to acclimate to zero gravity early on. All cargo-class and fighter-class cadets were encouraged to spend as much off-time as they pleased in the chambers during operational hours, and sometimes Lance would do his homework there.

He wasn't allowed to have any paper, but he could bring in a tablet, and that was just as good for him since he typed a lot faster than he wrote. It was a bit difficult to adjust to the nauseating feeling that washed over him while trying to focus on his screen, but after a few visits he had acclimated nicely.

Almost as fast as Shirogane, an older faculty member on shift at the anti-grav chamber remarked, and Lance beamed with pride that day. As far as he knew, that Keith guy didn't spend very much time here since there were always at least a few people floating around (literally), and it felt nice to have one thing to hold above the other cadet.

It became such a habit to spend his off time there, that occasionally Lance would fall asleep. Coming to after falling asleep in an anti-gravity chamber was definitely a bizarre feeling.

At first, it feels like you're still asleep, floating suspended in comfortable room temperature. Then as consciousness returns, panic hits you as you expect to start falling.

Which was exactly how Lance felt when he came to once again. The medication they pumped him full of made him woozy, and at first he didn't remember where he was or what had happened. He was floating, numb from any discomfort. Then he could feel the chill in the air, and the dull throb blossom on his face.

Panic hit him, and Lance almost expected to start falling.

He was still strapped in to the upright table they brought him in on, however, and couldn't even budge an inch. Right. He was a prisoner. He looked around.

Same room as last time.

It was mostly quiet aside from the electronics around him, letting out their constant hum he was now starting to grow accustomed to. The castle of lions had a similar sound to it, depending on where you went, but it wasn't nearly as loud. The pleasantly bright lighting of all the rooms also offset the slight noise.

Looks like the Galra don't care much about euphonics or interior design. Lance couldn't help but to let out a quiet laugh to himself, despite the situation. He wasn't in very much pain, aside from his face which still ached quite a bit. Thinking for a moment, Lance tried to focus on different parts of his body.

He knew he should feel aches all over, both from the blast he was hit with when he was initially captured, and from the rough treatment afterwards. His vision in the one eye was still just.. gone, and Lance pointedly avoiding thinking about why that was.

He tried to wiggle his toes, but they were too numb. His foot twitched sluggishly instead.

Thinking was also pretty difficult, so Lance figured he was still probably very medicated from.. whatever it was they did to him. The passage of time also seemed warped, and he was having a lot of trouble figuring how long he had even been awake for. Was it a couple of minutes, or longer than that? It was hard to tell.

He was starting to wonder how long it would be just him and the steady beeping of his heart rate monitor, before a familiar figure entered the room. The small druid with the tail quietly but swiftly approached, pulling the same IV drip and carrying the same brief case as before.

Their other hand was hidden beneath their robes and appeared to be holding something new, but even while squinting Lance couldn't make it out.

The back of his throat ached as he tried to squeak out a greeting, but it sounded nothing like his normal voice. It cracked like it did when he first hit puberty, and in different circumstances Lance would have probably been embarrassed.

Within moments the druid was next to him and set the suitcase down next to the same table as before, flicking the IV drip into place. They snapped their gaze behind them to check the door, and as they did their hood jostled from the quick motion. For a brief moment, Lance caught sight of.. skin? blonde hair? ..What? Was he hallucinating?

As quick as he saw it, it was gone, and replaced itself with a faceful of their mask, now pressed up inches from Lance's face. They spoke quickly, and softly. "Drink." The cloak covering their arm lifted and fell to the side. A translucent pouch of clear liquid was held up to his mouth, and Lance's eye widened.

They were giving him water? They made an insistent motion to drink, and for a moment panic seized him and he feared it was a trap.

But Lance remembered what they said to him last time.

Why bother doing all all that if they had already captured him and had him at their mercy? There was no need to feign kindness at this point. Whoever this druid was, they were someone Lance felt like he could trust. He was also extremely thirsty.

His lips parted, and before he could thank them, they stuck the suction part of the pouch into his mouth and squeezed.

Immediately sweet, sweet relief flooded his dry mouth. It was caked with grime and blood and initially the water he greedily swallowed tasted foul, but Lance barely registered it since he was so desperately thirsty. He hadn't even realized it until that point. It was amazing.

"Quickly," they whispered, and Lance could only make a noise of affirmation in between swallows. The druid turned again towards the door, and through the distortion of the pouch he could see a bit more of their face through their robes. Were they... cute? They looked almost... human.

"They're nearly here, I'm squeezing in the rest," they warned before grasping the pouch and pushing the rest in. With the warning, Lance was able to stop himself from choking, and let out a quiet, pleased exhale after finishing. He cleared his throat.

"Th... Thank you," Lance mumbled, still drowsy from the medication. His throat felt a lot better though. From afar, he could hear some muffled chatter grow near.

The small druid quickly resumed their normal set up, and went to work on assembling the IV and quintessence injector as before. Their body language seemed almost hesitant this time, however. "...You don't.. have to thank me," they murmured, and held up the syringe injector

as if to show why thanks weren't necessary. Lance shook his head.

"..It's okay, I get it. Undercover business, right?" His words had a slight slur to them, but he hoped the other understood what he was trying to say. They gave a small nod, and turned to insert the injector into the IV.

Now, there was a question pressing against Lance's mind urgently, as the mental fog began clearing. It felt like he had been out for a while, and he felt.. off. He couldn't explain how. He was clearly medicated, but it wasn't as if he was acting out enough to warrant something like that. They put him out for a reason.

"Hey, uh, did.. did they do something to me..?" The druid's hands stilled.

Twenty feet away, the door swished open with a mechanical whir, and a group of tall, imposing druids poured in. They were silent now, whatever conversation they were having prior to entering the room ended. Their footsteps were almost non-existent, and only the drag of their cloaks could easily be heard. Lance fearfully watched them approach as the smaller druid worked beside him, feeling the familiar warmth of the quintessence emanate onto his skin as the concoction began seeping into the tube connected to his arm.

There were seven druids including the one next to him, but only one of the larger ones approached.

"Varis." The smaller druid twitched slightly, and after affixing the injector turned to their superior. Through the fear Lance realized that must be his helper's name.

"Injection complete, sir," they reported, voice sounding more cold and mechanical than it did when they spoke to Lance. They gave no indication of remorse or hesitation whatsoever. If they truly were an undercover agent, they were clearly very good at it.

"Dismissed," the druid ordered, and the other quickly took their leave, weaving through the other six. Lance tried to watch them leave, but his face was quickly seized by the druid in front of them.

"Hmm.. a success, by the looks of it. Healing nicely." Lance squinted at the ugly, bird-like mask currently scrutinizing him, and and gritted his teeth against the harsh grip.

"What'd you do to me?!" he growled, trying to wrench his face away.

At that moment, Lance realized what happened.

The vision was beginning to return out of his eye that was definitely ruined.

"What did we do, paladin? We have done nothing but give you a gift, courtesy of the high priestess herself."

The gift—the implant—and what the druids called its "near perfect integration to his central nervous system," needed very little in-person observation to ensure it was functioning properly. After the group of druids left, Lance realized they all probably came down with the main intent of screwing with him. Their taunts ate away at his slowly returning mental clarity, and Lance truly began to understand the direness of his situation.

He could see just as well as he did before—before that other Galra ruined his eye. If anything, things seemed more crisp than ever, and when Lance closed his regular eye, aside from the slight sky blue tinge everything had, he would call his vision perfect.

But why? Why would they injure him, then fix what they inflicted? If the commander's actions weren't planned, why didn't the druids just not bother and leave him as he was? Were they afraid of risking an infection if they left the wound untreated?

No, Lance shook his head, neck swaying slightly against his tightened restraints. They had their own versions of Altean healing pods; his team had run into sectors of Galran outposts that had healing pod rooms not dissimilar to the one in the Castle of Lions. They could have thrown him in there without going through all the trouble of giving him some kind of.. bionic eye.

His cheek twitched and lifted his lid against the implant, trying to feel for any difference between his normal eye and that one. He felt a slight lift when his lid moved up to cover his cornea, and that side of his face maybe felt a bit warmer than the other, but that was about it. Learning anything else about what they did to him seemed impossible.

Lance tapped the back of his head against the cold metal of the table he was strapped to, and fought back tears of frustration.

Hours and hours passed, or what felt like hours, Lance wasn't sure since keeping track of time in the room his was in wasn't possible. Had it been a day now? At some point he fell asleep, and woke up to the familiar sensation of a dry ache in the back of his throat.

His stomach was definitely empty, but didn't growl with the telltale signs of hunger. Whatever that IV liquid they pumped into him was, it was probably sustaining him somehow. But only barely. He felt weak, constantly tired, and his muscles were stiff from disuse.

The heart rate monitor beside him had become nothing more than white noise to him by that point, and Lance began to wonder how long he was going to be here for. A small part of him almost wished for something, anything to happen to get him out of that room. He was alone with his thoughts and his anxieties about his team and whatever was happening to him, and Lance felt like he was going stir-crazy.

The small druid returned some time later, routinely bringing with them the roller and briefcase, and Lance was determined to figure out more about what was going on.

Once again, the druid had hidden with them something beneath their cloak.

"Hey," Lance greeted, startled by how croaky he sounded. He hadn't been doing much in the way of talking lately, and his voice reflected that. Though if they noticed, the other said nothing to indicate this.

"No one will be coming today." Their voice a near whisper as they set up their tools. They pulled out another packet of water, uncapped it, then pushed it against Lance's mouth. "Take your time." Lance greedily accepted and began downing the entire thing.

As he did, the tell-tale clicking of the briefcase latches beside him echoed throughout the room, reminding him why they were really here. Right, answers.

The needle was inserted once again into the drip after being attached to Lance's arm, and as the uncomfortable warmth began to seep down into his veins, the packet was removed from his mouth. He took a moment to catch his breath and wait for the slight brain freeze to subside.

The druid remained quiet as they watched him.

"Uh.. Thanks, again, for that, uh, Varis?" They seemed unused to receiving any thanks, and turned their mask down towards the ground, shuffling their feet awkwardly before giving a small nod. "Do you know why they keep having you do this, though..?" Lance motioned with his head towards the IV next to him, and they looked back up to him.

"...To prepare you," they began, and their voice held an almost sad tone to it. "This mixture is injected into... specimen, to prepare their body to not reject any alterations or implants made to it."

"But that's what I don't get," Lance implored. "Why would they give me my eye back? I'm a paladin of Voltron! They're supposed to hate me, not help me!"

The druid shook their head. "That wasn't to help you. It was to see how well you would adapt to having your nervous system slightly modified." They lifted a hand towards the IV. "You did so with almost no issue, so they're preparing you for the final phase."

"...Okay t-that sounds pretty scary.. What's the final phase..?" Lance was almost afraid to ask, and his throat felt dry despite his earlier drink.

They were silent for a moment. "I'm not entirely sure, but from what I've overheard, they're talking about transferring you to something, or somewhere.."

His breathing sped up. "W-When?"

"I don't know."

"Do you know why they're doing all of this?"

"..I don't. But." They hesitated for a moment, before seeming to steel themselves and lifted a trembling hand against their mask and pulled. Lance's eyes widened.

They looked human.

They looked human.

"While I'm still working on a plan, I'm going to get you out of here before any of that happens."

After the shock of meeting another (half) human subsided, Lance could feel his ever-dwindling sense of hope reignite.

Soon after, the druid—Kylee, not Varis, they revealed—hastily went to make their way out of the room, but not before reaching into their robe once again and pulling out a small oval-shaped item, wrapped in purple foil. They pulled on each end until something resembling a cough-drop rolled out.

Before Lance could ask what it was, Kylee popped it in Lance's mouth, and a bizarre, sour mint flooded his taste buds. The taste was overpowering, but wasn't the most unpleasant thing he had ever tasted.

"Wha-" being that he was so unused to eating anything by this point, his mouth took over by producing way too much saliva, which poured out when he tried to speak.

"Humans need to maintain dental hygiene, and this will help in place of brushing, for now," they explained with an almost amused smile, brushing the ground with their tail. Lance swallowed, and tried to mirror his expression. His breath must have been pretty awful up to that point to make them risk smuggling toothpaste candy to him. He laughed.

"Alright. I'll make sure to brush next time you visit."

They made a perplexed face before nodding anyway, placed their mask back on, assembled their supplies, then swiftly left.

He watched as they went, then swished the weird candy around his mouth thoughtfully, revelling in the clean feeling it left in his mouth in its wake. It was bitter, but the refreshing mint was almost pleasant. It soon melted and Lance exhaled through his mouth, trying to focus on that instead of the burning now beginning to pulse through his body from the injection.

It was harder than before, since his veins felt much hotter than they did in the past. The dull discomfort started coming in waves, and it was impossible to conceal a wince every time the ache returned.

To distract himself, Lance tried to think about what he should do next. There wasn't much he could do, of course. He was still strapped to an upright table with basically no hope of escape, aside from relying on Kylee. An ally? He wasn't completely sure he could trust the druid yet, even if they hadn't done anything to prove otherwise.

It almost seemed too good to be true that he just so happened to encounter some undercover secret agent half human who said they wanted to help him. But, Lance also piloted a giant cat robot in space, so, stranger things had happened in his life.

Lance suddenly perked up at the thought of his lion. Blue! Maybe.. Maybe he could try to reach out to her or something? Allura told them at one point that the lion and pilot were supposed to share a special bond, or connection.. Since the druids had earlier taunted him by burning his suit and helmet to avoid being tracked, he figured it would be next to impossible for his team to find him now.

But if there was some way to connect to his lion, maybe there would be a way for her to find Lance. In the past, when he piloted Blue, he could always feel a strange sensation in the back of his head. It was gentle and soothing, yet overpowering all at once. Sometimes it would send images or feeling directly into his brain, and so he assumed that was her talking to him, or doing the cat robot ship equivalent of it.

He closed his eyes, ignoring the discomfort of the raised bit of his eye implant. He had nothing but time now, anyway. Might as well try to see if he could do anything to change his situation.

Breathing deeply, Lance cleared his mind and began to concentrate.


	5. Chapter 5

(Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Voltron because believe me my series would be cannon if I did. Also i did not write all of this on my own, this was co-written with tumblr user: binart, Chapter 1-5 was written by them. However, i do own my Voltron OC: Kylee. Side note: you can follow the tag #quintessencequestau on instagram. feel free to make fan art. Also i wrote Kylee's escape of the galra ship.)

* * *

After several hours, He gave up with a frustrated sigh.

" maybe i'm too far away.." he mumbled to himself as the door slide open and he was greeted by the small druid and taking notice of his hands as the half galra teen took off his mask, the blue paladin frowned at the movement of his tail and how his hands seemed to tremble slightly. Kylee tried to keep his trembling under control as his tail flicked sharply against the ground and he felt himself starting to lose to the panic that was clawing at him.

"So that's what you normally look like?" Kylee flinched, his train of thought broken by the human paladin's warm tone. He looked down at his hands to see his skin was its normal ivory white.

" my stress must be affecting my disguise spell...Listen, Lance, we don't have much time. I overheard that they're going to move on to the final stage, I believe Haggar and the other Druids are going to place your quintessence in a robeast and have you attack your friends, the other paladins. " The half-breed felt a sting in his heart as the taller teen started to panic, but ran a hand through the brunette's hair in an attempt to calm him, remembering Thace used to do it when he was younger after his dad died. The small blade member allowed a small smile as the other relaxed slightly.

"I'll be back for you. I promise. I'm going to do get an escape pod ready, alright? Just wait a few ticks." Lance gave a small shaky grin.

" it's not like I can move around here, Lee." He replied and made emphasis by shaking his wrists and ankles in the cuffs that were welded to the table. The blonde snickered.

"No jokes in a serious setting, ocean eyes. I'll be right back." Kylee then focused and his face and hands turned purple then he slipped on his mask and left the room. Lance suddenly felt heat rush to his face and a tingly sensation in the pit of his stomach.

"O-Ocean eyes?"

Kylee glanced around and made his way down the halls, heading towards the docking bay of the escape pods and began to activate one when he froze at the sound of a blaster charging up.

"Don't move, half breed. " snarled Zolya, two guards on either side and trained on the blonde.

"Take him to the high priestess to be dealt with. I'm sure she can make use of him, maybe turn him into a Robeast perhaps." Kylee reacted quickly and shot out a blast of light, temporarily blinding the three galra and made a dash for the room where Lance was being held.

"Okay, Lance, we're on a time restraint so I'm gonna have to-" Kylee glanced over at the table to see that the blue paladin was gone and felt panic set in and tried to focus,using a quintessence location spell, only to receive a blast of purple energy as he felt it tear through him, crying out in pain as the energy cut through his skin and he quickly began to bleed in heavy amounts. He skidded across the floor and slammed hard against the wall as he was cornered by Zolya and the two guards.

" impudent cub. " The Druid growled with disgust as he stepped closer, Kylee bared his fangs underneath his mask and felt something burn in his stomach as he let out a roar of anger and fired an energy blast and to his surprise the color came out red but he pushed that aside and forced himself up, quickly leaving the three smoking bodies behind and tried to focus through the pain of his injuries and managed to find Lance, who was unconscious but otherwise unharmed for the most part and gave a shaky sigh of relief.

" thank the stars..." he mumbled to himself and started to fiddle with the restraints when the alarms sounded. Kylee swore under his breathe as he felt tears prick his eyes.

" Lance, I'm coming back for you. I promise. Just hold on until I find your friends. I'll bring them back to help me rescue you, alright? " hesitating for a mere moment, the half breed placed a kiss on the Cuban's forehead and ran out of the room, quickly getting into another escape pod only for moments later, drones began to attack. Kylee dodged the best he could despite the injuries and blood loss, his vision was starting to blur as he lost an engine and fumbled for the hyper drive stick, pulling it back and felt the g-force push him against the seat then it abruptly stopped as he saw a space ship come closer into view. The blonde was starting to black out but quickly sent out an a distress signal as he start to drift off, being lulled by a sense of warmth and a soft growl inside his head.

* * *

Hunk shifted on his feet slightly, putting his weight onto his left foot, then his right. He had been standing in front of the blue lion in its hangar for some time; staring up bitterly at its stationary face.

In the past, when Pidge and Shiro went off to collect data from a fallen Galra cruiser and were nearly killed in an explosion, their lions reacted and came to save them. Clearly, the ships had some level of sentience, and in times of direct peril could leap into action.

Hunk didn't doubt for a single moment that Lance was absolutely in danger in the hands of the empire. A seizing shiver travelled through his body. He was losing sleep over all the things they could be doing to his best friend right now.

He continued to stare up at blue.

Why wasn't it doing anything? Why hadn't it moved since Pidge came back alone?

Everyone was exhausted from the constant search to track Lance down. Pidge, of course, was running herself into the ground trying to find him, devastated with guilt. She and Hunk had been pouring through database after database from ship after ship for any trace of Lance and his whereabouts.

Any high profile prisoner transfers from the time he was taken to the present were tracked to the best of their abilities, and the two of them had finally been forced to take a break from developing their new program to covertly hack into the empire's central database (where all previous attempts had been unsuccessful). Two days of mind-numbing coding had worn them down until they couldn't think straight, and after hitting a mental block, made the decision (also at the insistence of Coran and Shiro) to rest up, refuel, and get back to it once their heads were clear.

Anxiety followed Hunk back to his room, however. Though exhausted, when he closed his burning eyes, all he could see was the wall of code that was stumping him against a dark screen. Flashes of all the terrible things that could be happening to his friend interspersed the lines. They had all heard each other scream in the heat of previous battles, so it wasn't hard for Hunk to unwillingly conjure the horrible sounds to go with the visuals in his head.

After realizing there was no way he could get any sleep at that point, Hunk decided he'd go make something to calm himself down, then give it another try.

Hunk hoped to track Coran down on the way there or back to see if he had anything Hunk could take to sleep, because as wired as he was, he wanted to rest and get back to work as soon as possible.

On the way to the kitchen, Hunk passed by the hallway that led down to the lions hangars. He stood there, staring down into the dark corridor, lit by the comforting blue lights adorning the walls.

He found himself in front of Blue in its hangar soon after.

Without realizing it, the anxious clenching in his chest had shifted into something hotter, angrier. He balled up his fists tightly as salty tears stung his already reddened eyes.

"Why don't you do something?!" He hissed, knowing full well the blue lion wouldn't respond. Why would it respond to Hunk when it didn't even respond to its pilot who was undoubtedly in extreme danger? Who was probably being tortured right now?

Hunk wasn't stupid. He may have found himself thrown into the war with his friends when they were only students, but it didn't take very long for them all to realize the severity of what was at stake, and the horrific things the empire was capable of and was actively doing.

They were hurting his friend, his brother, and all the sentient ship that was supposed to protect him in times of great peril was doing was sitting in its hangar having a staring contest with Hunk.

Silent. No movement. No hint of any life, of any intention to help them find Lance. He sniffled and squeezed the tears from his eyes, tilting his head towards the ground. None of this was fair.

"Paladins, to the bridge, immediately!"

Allura's echoing voice through the castle's announcement system shot through the hangar and snapped Hunk up immediately to attention. He whirled around towards the door and dashed towards the bridge as instructed. What was going on?

He turned a corner and nearly slammed into a sprinting Keith, who narrowly avoided Hunk but kept his gaze tracked ahead to his destination. Hunk hurried beside him.

"What's—" he gasped, struggling to regulate his breath. "What's happening, Keith?"

"No idea," Keith turned to glance at Hunk before looking back ahead. "She didn't tell us to go to our lions though." He sucked in a breath. "Means there's probably not a fight."

"Do you—do you think it's something about—" Hunk found it difficult to even say Lance's name. Keith seemed to catch on to his hesitation.

"Hopefully. C'mon." The two made their way with as much haste as they could, and nearly skidded into the bridge minutes later.

The rest of the team was already there, crowded together beside Allura at her controls. As he gasped to catch his breath, Hunk could see Pidge's chair off to the side had her laptops strewn on the seat, already up and running again, despite their agreement to take a break. Hunk considered for a moment that he was upset by this, but then remembered he hadn't actually gone to rest either, and was much more distracted with whatever the group was currently staring at on the holo-screen in front of Allura.

"Take a look, you two," Allura beckoned, and enlarged the semi-translucent screen. In front of them, they saw the empty vastness of space; a nearby galaxy brightening the black void with a brilliant jade hue. In front of the brightest part of the star formation was a tiny object that was slowly growing larger by the second. It was something that seemed to be coming closer towards the ship, but was still a ways off.

"It's a ship," Pidge explained, and Allura pinched that part of the screen and pulled both hands apart from one another to enlarge the section. "Doesn't look to be hostile," she added.

When the image filled the screen, a small craft that was distinctly Galran came into view. Even with the slightly grainy video-feed quality, it was obvious something was wrong with it. The left wing appeared badly damaged and was expelling smokey fumes into the vacuum of space. The view-port in the font was cracked and frosted, and several parts of the top section sparked dangerously.

Pidge typed away furiously at Allura's feet, pouring over the data the castle's scans were sending in. Hunk dropped down on a knee and looked over her shoulder at the information.

"That's not a normal Galran hailing frequency.." he mumbled, with Pidge quietly affirming it. Everyone around them seemed to hold their breath at this revelation.

Each division of the Galran empire had their own unique frequencies for various situations, but all tended to relatively similar once someone with a good eye for patterns (Hunk) took a closer look. After large scale battles, Galran soldiers would often hail the larger surviving fleets for extraction to regroup, so the team knew what to look for when an enemy soldier was hailing for backup.

"It's not one of ours either, though.." Keith made a noise behind them, frustrated as that meant it probably wasn't Lance. He backed up a step and stared up at the craft.

"Lance knows the frequency he's supposed to hail if he's trying to reach us, so that can't be him." He narrowed his eyes. "This is probably a lure for an ambush."

Hunk's heart sped up. An ambush. That was a possibility. Having a single damaged aircraft drifting towards them might cause them to lower their guard and go to investigate, only to be taken by surprise with an entire fleet worm-holing in. Hunk glanced nervously up at it and swallowed.

"It's not firing or really doing anything, though. It's just sending out an S.O.S in a code we don't use." He stood up and pointed at the craft. "What if this is Lance? What if something's wrong and he can't remember the normal code or something?"

Hunk imagined Lance doing everything he could to escape the Galra, only to be shot down by the very team he was trying desperately to get back to. "We can't risk attacking it; It could be him!" Hunk levelled his gaze at Keith with clear determination.

He knew Keith's habit of shooting first, asking questions later. But even if an ambush was probable, if there was any possibility this was Lance, Hunk wasn't going to risk it.

Keith, surprisingly, looked down meekly. "I'm just saying we should be careful. We don't need to shoot it down.." He gave Hunk a vulnerable look. "Especially if it is him."

Shiro nodded, and gestured towards the raised seats for each paladin. "Let's get into a defensive position. When the ship come in range, we'll trap it inside the shield then dock it in an isolated bay and meet whoever's down there."

Coran sped over to his console, readying the shields. Allura lifted her hands, a familiar gesture to the team by that point; she was readying the castle's weaponry. "Any sign of an ambush and we fully retaliate," she instructed. Everyone made quiet sounds of affirmation, then got into position.

With bated breath, the team watched as the galran craft came closer towards the castle, only one thruster seeming to be functioning by that point. According to plan, when it was close enough to the castle, Coran slammed down the encompassing spherical shield behind it, effectively locking it inside with them. It was pulled towards the docking bay's auto-dock function and sputtered inside.

"Coran, continue to monitor the external area, but be ready to activate internal defenses if our visitor is hostile." He nodded, eyes not shifting from the screen in front of him. Allura turned around to look at the rest of the team.

"Everyone, ready your bayards. We're going."

The damaged door of the craft hissed open slowly with a worrying creak. The team stood fifteen feet away with weapons drawn, waiting anxiously. Hunk considered initially going straight in instead of waiting for whoever- or whatever was in there to come out (in case it was Lance and needed their help, in case Lance was in there but couldn't move), but after Pidge confirmed that all traces of biological mass within the ship were somehow intentionally being cloaked, he decided against it.

After a few moments, smoke began seeping out of the opening, and they heard a barely audible, but distinctly human pained groan. Keith gasped.

"Lance?!" he launched towards the craft's opened hatch, Shiro narrowly missing his arm to stop him. But Keith was fast, and he didn't have any doubts. It had to be him.

The rest of the team followed after as Keith disappeared into the smoke, pausing at the entrance to try and peer in.

"Lance?! Where are you?!" he called out, thankful he put his helmet on before rushing in. The interior was quickly filling with dark fumes, and he could barely see. He heard coughing to his left in the corner. "Lance! I've got you!"

Hunk's heart stopped. Pidge sucked in a hoarse noise that sounded close to a sob.

Keith's back appeared to them as he hunched forward, pulling and coming down the ramp. They ran over to help him get Lance away from the ship. He was wrapped a dark cloak and there was blood staining it.

A flash of blonde hair stopped everyone in their tracks.

"..What.." Keith whispered as he dropped the arms of who he was holding. They hit the ground with another pained groan. He stumbled back, lifting his sword at the stranger. "That isn't Lance."

At the sound of his name, the figure dragged themselves up to a hunched over position, and nearly ripped the dark hood covering their blood matted face. A galra?

He wheezed and coughed painfully before trying to speak. "I... I know where he is."

They slumped over, hit the ground, and fell unconscious.


	6. Chapter 6

(Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Voltron because believe me my series would be cannon if I did. Also I did not write all of this on my own, this was co-written with tumblr user: binart, Chapter 1-5 was written by them. Chapter 6-9 were me and I own my Voltron OC: Kylee. Side note: you can follow the tag #quintessencequestau on instagram. Feel free to make fan art)

* * *

Kylee jolted awake, panting heavily as he looked around to see he was being glared at by four humans and two alteans, from outside some sort of holding cell. He frowned softly at the fact his wounds weren't even cleaned up, much less treated, he felt uncomfortable and stiff in dried blood clothes as well as having it caked on his skin.

"But then again, why would they treat me? I'm the enemy that took their friend according to them." He thought to himself, flinching slightly as the yellow paladin stepped forward.

"Who are you? You said you know where Lance is, where is he?" There was a pause of silence for a brief moment then the blonde spoke up.

"My name is Kylee. I'm with a resistance group known as the blade of Marmora. We infiltrate Galra occupied planets or sneak on to ships and gather information." He explained as he used his tail to reach around and pull out his blade, Keith flinched at the sight of it, frowning when he noticed the stone embedded in its hilt wasn't glowing then quietly touch his own and spoke up after a few minutes.

"How do we know that isn't a fake?" Kylee sighed softly and mumbled that they didn't have time for this.

"Look, I came here to come get you so you could help rescue Lance. He's on a ship about maybe a Varga from here, I don't know, I started to black out from blood loss. But I overheard the druids talk about putting Lance in a robeast. " the group gasped and Shiro swiftly turned to the shortest of the four humans.

"Pidge, grab the location of where the craft disembarked from. We'll track the ship and locate Lance." Pidge nodded and ran off.

"I'm coming with you." Kylee stated in a firm tone, his tail flicking about slightly, irritated at the mere idea of anyone objecting.

"As if we would allow such a thing, how do we know you won't get ahead of us and lay out a trap to capture us all?" The blonde held firm underneath the princess's glare, his light pink eyes seemed to turn dark with a raging fire underneath.

"I left Lance to find you. I regret it with every drop of my quintessence having to leave behind the human I fell in love with. Why would I turn on his only hope of getting out alive?" They flinched at the teen's bold statement.

* * *

Kylee let out a shaky sigh as he tried to focus and performed the quintessence location spell but it was hard as his wounds started to reopen and started to wet his cloak with fresh blood, Keith felt a pang of guilt as he watched the blade member perform the spell as the paladins took cover behind a hallway wall from gun blasts from the sentry bots.

"L-Lance...should be about three halls down and the third door on the right...I'll buy you some time." He slowly stood up and performed a quick healing spell to at least temporarily clot the bleeding. He then stepped forward, gracefully dodging the blasts then fired an energy pulse that shut down some of sentry bots, the paladins managed to slip past them and ran towards the location of where the blonde said Lance was located but Keith skidded to a stop when he heard a blaster go off and looked back to see Kylee holding his side. The blonde looked back at the raven haired teen and glared at him.

"What are you doing?! Keep moving, red paladin! Go rescue Lance! "Keith gritted his teeth but turned around and kept running, surprised to feel a stinging sensation behind his eyes.

Kylee struggled against the metal table he was strapped to as a Druid placed some type of metal collar around his neck, he flinched as it disrupted his disguise spell, revealing his ivory white skin which was still caked in dried blood. The Druid then typed in a few keys and brought up a holographic screen that showed details on Kylee's quintessence.

"Astonishing..." the Druid whispered underneath the mask then quickly left to go get the high priestess. Kylee struggled against the restraints, opening his wounds even further and he winced in pain.

"Well...at least the paladins and Lance are safe ..." Kylee thought, their mind going through the moments they had with the blue paladin, a few of them lasting on longer than necessary and chuckled at the memory of when the brunette made a joke or two during the short time they had together. But all of that stopped when a woman with long white hair, draped in a hooded cloak stepped into the room with two other druids in tow. She looked down at him then at the screen, Kylee felt a primal fear being underneath those glowing eyes and black markings seemed to glow with a dark red sheen in the lighting of the room but he glared at her none the less.

"So this is the half breed, Valdare? "She asked as she looked over the screen

"Yes, high priestess. He was helping the paladins escape. "The Druid explained

"And I'll die before I tell you anything." Kylee snarled with venom in his tone, the whites of his eyes turning yellow for a brief moment. He grunted in pain as a pulse of dark energy hit him.

"Be Silent." The Druid ordered and Kylee suddenly felt gravely ill and as if he was being full exposed to everyone despite being dressed as a black and purple aura washed over him.

"W-What...what are you doing to me?" He whispered as he tried to fight off the sensation.

"If you feel the need to know, I'm reading your quintessence down to the last drop and it seems not only do you have elemental fire quintessence and you have a strand of ancient Galra within you as if the sight of your tail wasn't a giveaway, how very rare I thought they all died out long before Emperor Zarkon's ruling…Now then as for what to do with you, do not worry, your quintessence is too valuable to be made as a robeast. You'll be something entirely new, yes, we'll make fine use of you, little half breed." Haggar replied, Kylee felt terrified at the glee in her rough voice as large vats of pure quintessence rose up out of the floor and the Druids that came and attached the tubes to the collar around his neck and thick IVs were forced into his arms and felt a wave of nausea wash over him as he felt the room spin and vision started to blur at the edges, he managed to glance at the tubes connected to the collar the best he could to see glowing red liquid flow through the tubes and into the vats of pure yellow quintessence, turning it a bright orange that reminded the blonde of lava which he had seen a few times in his life.

"Is...That my..quin..." His words slurred as he blacked out.

* * *

Shiro moved down the hall with quiet stealth with the other three paladins close behind, after a few moments the black paladin nodded.

"Okay, Keith, go ahead." The red paladin nodded and made his way over to the scanner pad on the side of the door and after a few beeps the door opened, bayard at the ready but to his surprise there was no one in the room.

"Lance, come on, buddy. " Hunk spoke in a hushed whisper, lightly tapping on the boy's cheek, trying to contain his joy that his best friend, his brother while a little worse for wear was alive and breathing. Keith made a noise of urgency.

"Hunk, we don't have this kinda time. We gotta go now. Pidge, hack into the system and unlock the-"The four paladins froze in terror as a blood curdling scream tore through the ship, Lance suddenly jolted awake.

"Lee! W-where's Kylee?" Lance looked around wildly and tugged at the restraints, barely being heard over the screams that didn't seem to stop. Lance flinched when he felt hands cradle his face in a firm but gentle grasp.

"Lance, listen to me, alright? We'll find him. You just need to stop moving for a moment until Pidge unlocks the restraints otherwise you might dislocate your wrists or ankles." Shiro explained and the blue paladin nodded trying to keep himself grounded but whimpered at the sound of the screams, soon the restraints were off and Lance made a move to get up and run towards the screams but the room seemed to tilt and sway and the Cuban boy found his face pressed against yellow paladin armor, Lance whimpered and clung to Hunk.

"I got ya, Hermano." Hunk held Lance close, shooting a concerned look at the others. Keith couldn't stand it anymore, the screams didn't seem to stop, he quickly turned to Pidge.

"Can't you find out where it's coming from so we can go stop it?!" Pidge flinched and started typing away.

"I'll hack into the systems cameras and look at the room locations." After several minutes, the other paladins frowned at the look of horror on the young paladins face as she swore in a shaky tone at the image on screen.

Kylee woke up with a groan, last thing they remembered was the druids hooking up tubes to that collar they forced on him then the dizziness as well as the nausea while red glowing liquid flowed through the tubes and into the vats and now they were here.

"But where is here...?" He asked himself as he looked around to find that he was on a beach, he remembered beaches from the few pictures his father kept. The water lapped at his ankles, he heard a low rumble and turned to see a rather large volcano in the distance. He walked along the shore, taking in the sights when he came along some greenery along the shore and sat down to rest.

"Well where ever I am it is pretty nice..." suddenly, the volcano erupted and spewed out fire and ash as lava bubble up from underneath the water and slowly starting to turn the rest of water into the boiling magma.

Kylee felt panicked as he tried to figure out what do, how to get out this place, of any plan really when suddenly he was back in the galra ship and he let out a blood curdling scream as dark orange quintessence began to pump into him and by the stars he had felt no pain like it, he thrashed hard against the table, animal desperation compelling him to try and break free despite it obviously being a lost cause. It felt so hot, so unbelievably hot. It was if they injected lava into his system and planned to kill him from the inside out. He screamed and thrashed as his eyes turned red and his pupils to slits as the whites of eyes turned yellow and his white skin turned purple as his blonde hair turned snow white and his ears turned pointed, his fangs grew longer and sharper and his nails turned to sharp deadly claws as red markings appeared on his arms as well as his face and on the rest of his body, tears of lava formed and slide down his face until his voice gave out but continued to scream despite no sound coming out, eventually it stopped and he laid there limp and dull eyed, every time he panted wisps of fire left his mouth and tears of lava continued to flow, his vision started to blur as he lost consciousness.

"Process complete, high priestess." Haggar looked her new experiment over then gave a firm nod.

"Undo the straps then subdue his mouth, feet,hands and place him in a subzero containment room." The Druid nodded and just as he undid the restraints, Keith bursted into the room, bayard drawn and the whites of his eyes turned yellow with a burning rage. In one swift movement, he sliced though the two druids and made a move for Haggar, only to snarl in fury as she teleported away.

The red paladin slowly managed to calm himself as he went over to Kylee.

"Kylee? " He gently shook him and frowned when he got no response, shortly after Shiro came on his helmet's intercom.

"Keith, grab Kylee. Hunk's got Lance, meet us back at the lions."

"Right. See you in a few ticks."

* * *

The Princess gave sigh of relief when she saw the red and black lion come into view.

"Keith, Shiro, come in. Were you able to retrieve Lance?" She asked for the communication channel, concern laced in her voice. A moment later, Shiro appeared on screen.

"We did but he's unconscious from stress, the galra...they put some kind of eye implant into him and Kylee..." Shiro had a look of anger and pity in his eyes then gave a soft sigh.

"We're coming in. Coran, have a healing pod ready for Kylee and Lance might need one too."

Once the lions docked inside the hanger, Allura and Coran went to meet them with looks of worried concern on their faces as the black and red lions lowered their heads and opened their mouths. Shiro came out with Hunk and Lance who was still unconscious but had nothing more than some bruises around his left eye, the black and yellow paladin's faces were tight with emotion when Keith and Pidge finally came out. The smallest of the paladin's eyes seemed abit red and puffy, Keith's violet eyes almost seemed black with burning rage. At first, the two alteans merely thought it was out of what had happened to Lance until they finally took notice of the druid cloak that Keith was carrying on his back, last time they saw it, it had been a rich purple but now it seemed almost black with how much blood it had soaked up. They watched as Shiro came over and Keith almost seemed reluctant do so but handed whatever was underneath to the team leader. The princess and her advisor gasped with wide eyes as the hood fell back, revealing Kylee's face and white hair but she quickly gained composer as best she could and turned to Coran.

"Coran, are the pods ready yet?" The older Altean nodded, Hunk and Shiro went to the medic unit of the castle. Once Kylee and Lance were prepped and placed in healing pods, Allura and Pidge came into the room, Keith and Hunk wouldn't take their eyes of the pods while Coran was typing away on a holographic screen.

"What happened to him, why does Kylee look like this?" Allura asked, looking at the frosted glass. Keith gripped his arms tightly as he tore his eyes away from the glass, trying to keep his anger in check.

"It was Haggar. She experimented on him, she took this glowing red stuff out of his body then that stuff got put into a vat of this glowing neon yellow stuff and it turned orange and was pumped back into him. Then..then he started screaming and his skin turned purple on its own and-"

"Wait, on its own? I don't understand. I thought he was Galra. "Allura seemed confused. Keith mumbled that wasn't really the thing to focus on but was cut in by Pidge, who gave a worried look at the frosted glass then spoke up.

"He looked human when the collar got put on him; it disturbed some sorta cloaking he had on to make him look more Galra."

"Anyway, Keith did I hear you say glowing red stuff was coming out of Kylee? Then that means…holy quiznak, King Alfor's theory was right." Everyone seemed confused.

"Coran, what are you talking about?" Allura asked with a slightly raised eyebrow

"Princess, your father had a theory that every being that lives has a certain type of quintessence that could be categorized into five certain colors and represent specific elements. He also theorized that could be made into elemental magic as well. This is why he believed our scales came in only purple, red, blue, green and yellow. Until he met your mother, he had never seen pink and it amazed him, told me himself he had never seen scales more beautiful." Allura smiled softly at that. Coran cleared his throat.

"Anyway, I believe Haggar mixed Kylee's red quintessence with pure raw quintessence. From what we've gathered so far on data from the empire, filtered quintessence is light violet in color. The poor lad had raw quintessence mixed with his own and shoved back into him, warping his very DNA. "He pulled up a screen and looked it over.

"He's mostly Galra then human now. Ancient Galra at that, I thought they died out deca-phoebs ago. Far before when Zarkon came to power."

"Ancient Galra?" Keith asked with curiosity in his voice, Coran typed in a few keys and a different screen came up.

"There isn't much information on them in the castle's data archives but what I am able to tell you is that ancient galra bonded in packs and protected one another with their very lives. They also had an Alpha and Omega system. This type of thing is common with other planet's species besides ancient galra, like the Lucarins for example. They also have an alpha/omega system. Now alphas make good leaders and are protective of their pack members, like number one or the princess. They can also have bad tempers and be overly cautious with outsiders like number four. Omegas are caregivers and produce offspring, they are also highly cared for and looked after by alphas. Omegas also make good peace keepers and tension diffusers which I'd say is number three. Our undercover companion here, according to the scans from the pod, is an alpha with omega attributes. Very rare, they have tempers and protective instincts like a normal alpha but they feel the need to make nests and tend to be a little clingy when in heat as well as be produce offspring however rare it maybe. They also were once connected to a quintessence realm called Galdora, however there isn't any information it in the castle archives but I assume it's like what we Alteans have which is Oriande."

"Oriande? What's that?" Pidge asked as she leaned against an empty healing pod, Allura smiled softly.

"My father told me stories of Oriande as a child before bed. He told me stories of a beautiful pink clouded place and a castle in the sky guarded by a marvelous white lion, saying only those pure of heart would be able to pass its tests and learn the secrets of quintessence magic. I asked him how to get there and he told me that white lion had to visit you in a dream. Although now that I'm older I feel it requires something more than just dreaming about the white lion for it to just show up. But I still believe in it, after all…maybe that's where mother and father are…" Allura smiled softly as tears pricked her eyes and quickly wiped them away when a beeping came from one of the pods, they looked over to see Lance's glass dissolve and he was quickly caught by Hunk and Keith, the bruises on his face gone.

"Hermano, can you hear me?" The yellow paladin got a soft groan in response.

"Probably still drowsy. Best take him to his room." The two nodded at Coran's suggestion and left the medic bay with the blue paladin.


	7. Chapter 7

(Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Voltron because believe me my series would be cannon if I did. Also I did not write all of this on my own, this was co-written with tumblr user: binart, Chapter 1 was written by them and so was a large majority of chapter 2. Chapter four however was all me and I own my Voltron OC: Kylee. Side note: you can follow the tag #quintessencequestau on instagram. Feel free to make fan art)

* * *

Lance woke up with a soft groan and panic gripped at him but he relaxed slightly when he realized he was in his own room and saw Keith leaning against the wall, practically half asleep, near by.

"Hey, Keith. Where is everyone?" The raven haired teen got off the wall and stretched before speaking up.

"uh, I think Allura is her room with the mice. Pidge is trying to set up that gaming system you two bought at the space mall, Hunk is stress baking, Shiro is in the training room and Coran is still in the medic bay with-" He was cut off when he heard a snarling growl come from the medic bay, the two teens looked at each other then headed in the direction of the noise along with the other paladins and the princess to see Coran patting down his clothes and hair from small flames as the medic bay doors slide shut.

"Coran, what happened?" asked Shiro, his face etched with concern, looking him over to see if he was burned anywhere else.

"it's Kylee, His pod was finished and when I went to help him up off the floor, the lad lash out at me with literal fire I might add. The witch really did a number on him that's for sure."

"what? Can we see him?"

"just a moment, number three" He replied to the Cuban boy as he pulled out a tablet pad and pressed in a few keys before handing it over to Allura.

"okay, now we can all go see him. The particle barrier is up and the stunner orbs are on standby"

Pidge raised an eyebrow. "you have those in the medic bay?"

"yes, do you not have those on earth?" Replied Allura with a look of confusion of her own

"uh, no. We wouldn't need to, we have sedatives and-"

"can we just check on Kylee, please?" the red paladin cut in and everyone went inside to see Kylee pacing back and forth on all fours, growling softly before finally settling down in the corner, small flames coming out of his mouth every time he breathed out and focus his attention on Lance who stepped towards the particle barrier and placed his hand on the surface with a sad look in his eyes as he watched the white haired teen hiss at him like a cautious feral stray cat as his ears tilted down ever so slightly as his ancient galra tail flicked back and forth rather quickly.

"Allura, lower the barrier"

"I'm not even sure that's not Kylee anymore, Lance. That's nothing more then a wild animal. Removing the barrier is too much of a risk, you saw how Coran looked. How do you know he won't do the same to one of us?"

Lance felt a cold stinging sensation run through him and he recognized it as anger, he doesn't mean to be angry with one his best friend's and former crush but it wasn't fair to label the teen as nothing more than an animal just because of how he was acting at the moment.

"He saved my life! He's my friend! I can get through to him! He's just scared and probably acting on pure instinct, last time he was awake he was being tortured on a galra ship! I bet he doesn't even see us right now, I bet he thinks he's still on that ship with Haggar and her Druids!" He kept getting more and more agitated, unaware of a pitcher of water near by was shaking and trembling, some water was spilling slightly and he was distracted from his anger when he flinched at the sound of the pitcher shattering, bits of ceramic pottery and water got on the floor as Lance slowly started to calm down. "look, I've spent some time with him so he'll most likely remember and trust me. Allura, remove the barrier, please."

Allura sighed as she removed it but had the tazer orbs floating around lazily on stand by just incase which Lance frowned at but focused his attention on Kylee, who was still sitting in corner with his back against the wall and watching Lance's every move as his tail flicked back and forth. Lance took a step forward and knocked over a table, making a loud clattering sound and swore softly underneath his breath and Kylee snarled at the sudden movement and bared his fangs then exhaled unleashed a jet stream of fire, Lance somersaulted out of the way as the stream fire caused the particle barrier glitched a little.

"Lance!" everyone shouted in concern as Lance panted and placed his back against the wall, watching Kylee who was glaring at him. Then the teen started sniffing as he picked up a scent and his thin slitted pupils dilated slightly as he made his way over to Lance on all fours but suddenly he cried out in pain as the taser orbs start blasting at him and his markings glowed red and he snarl, baring his fangs then swiped his glowing red claws at the taser orbs and lava splattered on to them and they fell to floor in piles of metal goo and wiring then kept making his way to Lance

"Lance, get out of there!" Hunk shouted

Lance swallowed but held his ground

"No, he's just mad that Allura tasered him. I can calm him down"

He flinched as Kylee had him pinned with his claws on either side of his head and blushed slightly at the fact that if the situation were different then he'd probably be turned on by this but wiped those thoughts away and looked into the hybrid's red eyes with pupils so constricted they looked about as wide as a sewing needle.

"Lee, remember me? Ocean eyes? Your not on the ship anymore. Your at the castle of lions with me and the other paladins. The Princess and her advisor too." He reached out and touched Kylee's face while speaking in a tone he used to calm stray cats he used to bring home when he was little. Kylee flinched and growled softly but slowly stopped and relaxed as Lance stroked his cheek with his thumb. " there you go Lee, that's it. "

"L-Lance...?" Kylee's voice was mixed with confusion and fear as his markings stopped glowing.

"yea, buddy, I'm here. Haggar is long gone. We're safe. " The blue paladin replied as he felt himself blush slightly to hear Kylee actually purring as the half breed passed out against him and the rest of the gang gave a heavy sigh of relief.

Kylee woke up half asleep and nuzzled further into the scent of sea spray with sandlewood and a hint of lily. He purred louder and breathed in a little deeper, waking up abit more and opened his eyes to realize he was clinging to the blue paladin with his tail loosely draped over his waist. He started to move away as his ears tilted down slightly in embarrassment, heat rushing to his cheeks.

"sorry...I'm not used to much physical contact, blades aren't especially touchy with one another" He mumbled softly, Lance nodded in understanding

"it's cool. To be honest...I thought it was kind of cute " he flinched slightly when Kylee got closer and sniffed him abit more. "uh, dude?"

"you smell bad" Lance scowled at him and he replied quickly. "no I mean you smell...upset? Anxious...? What's wrong? I mean I'm open if you wanna tell me"

Lance swallowed and looked away. "I-I'd rather not talk about it...at least not yet anyway..."

Kylee nodded softly then sat up, glancing around and found his blade suit and changed into it, not really caring Lance was in the room who blushed bright red and quickly looked away.

"s-so um, what are you gonna do now?" He asked as heard Kylee zipped himself up

" I need to get a hold of headquarters, tell them where I'm at and what information I was able to gather. Would the princess allow me to use her communication device?"

"I don't see why not but you better ask just to be sure" Kylee nodded and went off to speak with the princess and after some discussion, Everyone gathered at the bridge while Kylee pressed a few buttons and on the screen, Kolivan showed up looking serious as usual.

"this is a frequency channel known only to blade members, how did you get it? " He demanded but his yellow iris less eyes widened slightly as when he saw the smaller blade member come into view.

"Hello,Kolivan. It's me...Kylee"

"Kylee, what's happened to you?"

"that's not important right now. I'm currently with the paladins of voltron and their princess. During one of my missions I was able to download some information, where's the closest meet up point?" The leader of the blades grew serious once more.

"about 8 quintents away on a planet known as Danrakite, you remember Rigel, correct? He and a new member will be meeting you there behind the shop that sells Sendeyar tech."

"if your against Zarkon's rein as we are then why don't you join us and we put our efforts together?" Allura asked

" I suppose. See you until then, Kylee."The transmission ended.

"Well, that happened." Pidge said out loud in a somewhat bored tone

* * *


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance has a dream and the castle is under attack.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Voltron because believe me my series would be cannon if I did. this was co-written with the help of binart, a user on tumblr.)

Lance blinked as he looked around, walking on the aquamarine water, occasionally looking that the aquatic life underneath his feet and felt a sense of freedom as he grinned, running and jumping taking pleasure in the fact no matter how hard his feet hit the surface he stayed on top rather than falling through. He let out a laugh as he ran along the surface and saw a blue lionness out of the corner of his eye.

"Blue! Hey, girl!" He exclaimed with joy only to be tackled and nuzzled by the large wild cat. He snickered and scratched her ears.

"Nice to see you too, how about a race?" He asked, once she got off him and received a roar in answer.

"Okay, on your mark, get set...go!" He took off as fast as his feet would carry him, confident that he would win but frowned slightly when he heard no paws behind him.

"Blue?" He slowed to a stop and turned around to see that she was gone and the sky was thick with dark clouds, thunder rumbled and wind picked up as the water underneath him turned dark. The blue paladin gasped sharply as heard the witch's laughter as a tsunami rushed towards him and pulled him under, tossing him around in inky abyss as he tried to find the surface but only darkness surrounded him as his lungs burned for air.

The Cuban boy jolted awake with a gasp as he trembled in his sweat soaked clothes, his pulse pounded as the optical implant he received from the druids stung and rubbed at it until the stinging sensation went away then got up from his bed, thinking a walk would help relieve his shot nerves.

He nearly jumped a foot in the air when he heard a soft roar come from the hangars and decided to go check it out to see Kylee, sitting criss cross in front of the red lion with his back to it. He sat down and watching the other teen who was clearly focused and struggling with something as his markings glowed and sweat began to form, steam rolling off his body. Suddenly, his body loosened and he panted heavily as his eyes opened as his markings stopped glowing and he wiped the sweat from his face and growled softly in irritation. Lance flinched and yelped softly in surprise when he suddenly slammed his fist into the floor, surprised he made quite a dent in the metal flooring.

"Oh, Lance. I'm sorry, I was just trying to find my quintessence stone...at least then I could control the amount of fire I put out and stop with the lava tears..." Kylee explained when he finally took notice of Lance near him.

"It's cool. But what's that? Your quintessence stone?"

"It's uhh...well, i was dreaming and i met Red. She told me it's like a physical representation of my magic? Like once I'm able to grab it I should have a better handle on the amount of fire I put out and be able to access my subset element, lava and also be immune to fire as well as lava. Red also told me that the place I tried to get it from, my quintessence realm is messed up because of what the witch did to me. "Lance touched his right eye in thought as he felt a pang of sadness hit him when suddenly the alarms blared and the two teens quickly got up and made their way to the bridge, where everyone else was at, all still in their sleepwear.

"Coran, what's going on? " asked Allura as her advisor pulled up a screen to show several ships with a rather large one at the center.

"Everyone, get to your lions" ordered the princess, the five paladins nodded and left. Moments later the lions appeared on screen and soon drones were sent from the galra ship to deal with them when suddenly the alarms went off again.

"Now what?" Kylee asked in an irritated tone as Coran pulled up a second screen to show a galra solider heading right towards them, weapon drawn. The half breed growled, tail flicking back and forth.

"Don't worry. I'll take care of him." He stormed out of the room and the two watched as the fire wielder easily took care of solider with his speed and a well placed punch that sent him flying into the wall but his gun went off and the plasma bounced around the room, taking out the security camera.

"Quick, bring up another camera! "Instructed the Altean princess. Kylee frowned at the fried tech.

"Maybe Pidge can fix it?" Their eyes widened and quickly snarled in rage as their ears caught the sound of laughter.

"Haggar! Show yourself!" He looked around while walking around the halls, barely moving out of the way when the witch came out of the shadows with her claws crackling with energy. He swiftly turned around and charged forward, throwing fire become more and more frustrated as she would teleport just before the flames hit her.

"What you did to Lance, to me, is unforgivable!" He roared as his markings and arms suddenly glowed bright red glowed as his amber glow came from his hands and lava bursted forth, melting the metal wall as behind her as she once again teleported away, the white haired teen growled in anger. He flinched as she suddenly appeared in front of him and he opened his mouth and ready to spew fire when she vanish and reappeared behind him.

"You think you've won, little half breed? Just because you've managed to escape? How amusing. I created you, I own you." Her voice was cold and Kylee growled as he swiftly turned around, raking a flamed claw through darkness where she once stood.

"I don't belong to anyone!" He inhaled sharply as she reappeared before him and he turned around to attack her, seeing her claw crackle with dark energy.

"You belong to me and in turn you belong to the Galra empire, little half-breed." His eyes widened in pain and cried out as he felt her claws dug into his side, the dark energy coursing through and around him. The blade member's anguished cries rang through the intercom and the paladins felt fear grip at them.

"Kylee!" they shouted but focused on the large ship that had an energy cannon focused on the castle of lions.

"Team, form Voltron! Pidge, the moment we're formed you active the shield" Shiro ordered

"Right." She replied and once Voltron was formed they got in front of the castle just as the cannon fired at blast of yellow light and it broke through the green lion's shield, enveloping the mecha in a golden light with the paladin's cries of agony becoming distorted over the intercom until they cut out altogether.

"Paladins!" Allura and Coran shouted but shielded their eyes from the light and when it faded, the large galra ship was gone with only the lions separated and floating listlessly among the broken and destroyed galra drone ships.

"Paladins, can you hear me?" Allura felt panic claw at her and she tried again.

"Hunk? Pidge? Anyone, please...answer." She trembled slightly but tried to keep her composure.

"Coran, what about Kylee?" Her advisor quickly typed in keys and was finally able to pull up a second camera. The blade member looked unconscious and in immense pain as his side had glowing claw marks on it with thick black veins at the edges of the wound.

"Is she still on the ship?" Coran pressed in a few more keys and replied that she wasn't and that she must've teleported off the ship and took the soldier with her.

"Alright then. Activate the gravity beam and pull the lions in. We'll figure out what to do from there."

* * *

Shiro was glowing purple and jumped from cloud to cloud, enjoying the calming breeze as he raced against the black lion when suddenly the lion vanished and the clouds swirled together and created a whirlwind vortex, tossing the black paladin around like nothing more then a rag doll and felt as if the air was being torn from his lungs when he saw a glowing purple gem, he reached out as far as he could, his fingers barely brushing against it. He gritted his teeth and tried again, feeling a sense of peace wash over him as he clasped his hand around it and felt a roar within him as the winds calmed and clouds turned back into fluffy white puffs.

Shiro jolted awake, gasping and panting heavily just as he fell out of the healing pod and looked around to see five other frosted healing pods which he assumed were Kylee and the other paladins. He ran a hand through his hair as he slowly calmed down to notice that he didn't have his robotic galra arm anymore but a sleek all white altean robot arm that had a glowing purple altean air symbol on the shoulder.

"how long have I been out?" He thought to himself, walking past a mirror to see what his hair had grown out with some stubble on his face as well as having purple markings on his face and gasped when he got a good look at his eyes to see that they had turned a rich purple from their normal dark grey.

"Just what in the world happened to me?" He asked out loud in a shaky tone.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance learns water magic and Keith is missing the other half galra teen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Voltron because believe me my series would be cannon if I did. i only own my OCs, Kylee and Rigel. this story was co-written with tumblr user, binart. Side note: you can follow the tag #quintessencequestau on instagram. Feel free to make fan art)

The black paladin turned towards the sound of the medic bay doors sliding open and saw Coran.

"Oh, thank the ancients. At least one of you is finally awake." Coran spoke with relief in his voice.

"Coran, how long have I been out and why do I look like this?" Shiro asked confusion clear in his tone but he also felt a sense of relief for no longer having galra tech attached to his body.

" I'd say you've been in your healing pod for...maybe thirteen Quintants. As to why you look like this, the blast you all took to protect the castle overpowered the lions and forced them to shut down and the magical currents that ran through all of you must've infused the five of you with large quantities of raw quintessence would explain your purple markings since you have air quintessence. As for your arm I believe the amount of quintessence it was exposed to cause it to overpower and explode so we built you a new one. I'm actually surprised you're the first one to wake up since we put you in last in order to fix up your arm." Coran explained while pulling up a screen and looked it over.

"According to the readings from the pod, the blast from the raw quintessence increased your speed and strength beyond that of a normal human. Just as it did for numbers two, three, four and five. The blast also increased Keith's galra DNA as well but not by a large amount, perhaps because it was isn't injected into him directly like it was with Kylee." Shiro frowned at the elder altean's explanation.

"Speaking of which, what happened? We...we heard him scream over the intercom." Coran glanced over at the teen's frosted pod

"We aren't exactly sure, a plasma blast from a gun knocked out one of the cameras and we had quite abit of a time trying to locate another one that was in the same area where we could get a decent enough shot to figure out what was going on but from what the two us heard, Haggar got on to the ship and attacked Kylee. She left some sort of wound on him, the markings were glowing and producing these thick black veins. Allura and I aren't entirely sure but we believe the lad has been infected with dark quintessence but to what extent we aren't sure." 

* * *

Keith was glowing red and climbing a mountain, eager to get to the top when suddenly red lightning came from the cloudless sky and struck the mountain causing it crack and split open, sending the teen flying off and just as he was swallowed up by the darkness he saw a glowing red lioness look down at him as lava slowly poured the cracked open mountain, he landed on red sand with a dull thud and with a glint of determination he tried again and was able to reach the top but when he got there, the red lioness was sitting at the top and staring at a pool of lava; Keith looked inside to see a glittering red gem and after a few moments of hesitation, He thrusted his hand in and grabbed the gem, hearing a powerful roar deep within him. Keith jolted awake, panting heavily and looked around just as the front of his pod dissolved, falling into Shiro's arms.

"I got you, Keith. Looks like you have them too. But yours are red. So then you have fire quintessence like Kylee." Shiro said, his eyes looking over Keith's face.

"Well, he does pilot the red lion after all. Seems like that would be kind of obvious." Coran added in as Keith made his way over to a mirror and looked himself over to see he had red markings on and around his eyes as well as on his cheeks and moving down his body, his eye color had turned from violet to red although the pupils remained round but he had fangs and his ears were pointed but he didn't have sharp claws or a tail like Kylee. He imagined Lance would call him a vampire if he saw him like this, the red paladin pushed that aside, turning to Coran and Shiro.

"Wait, so what about that meet up that Rigel guy and the other blade member that was supposed to see Kylee?" Coran and Shiro looked at one another, then at the teen.

"When Allura and I got you all in your pods we contacted the blade headquarters and explained what had happened with everyone, he said he would inform Rigel and the other blade member and that they would take a ship to ours and discuss the plans here." Keith got up from the wheeled chair he was sitting in, listening to Coran's explanation.

"Okay, great. Let's go meet them." The black paladin gently pushed him back down in the seat.

"Don't get up just yet. I'll wheel you out." Keith frowned but allowed it, casting a glance at the four remaining frosted pods then faced forward again. Keith noticed Allura first who came forward and got down to his level to properly hug him which he returned then noticed the first galra in a blade suit who stepped forward to shake his hand, he wore silver hoop earrings and jet black hair.

"Greetings, my name is Rigel. My undercover position is Commander. I look forward to working with the voltron coalition." He spoke, Keith nodded and glanced over at the galra who has his hair in a braid with purple markings on his face, his rich purple eyes held a glint of mischief and his ears were decorated with winged earrings that dangled droplets of clear gems and he had an eyebrow scar on his left side. Keith wasn't going to lie and say he didn't find this young man quite attractive.

"Hello. I look forward to working with all of you as well, my name is Lotor. I'd tell you my undercover position but it's not really undercover it's my actual title. I'm the banished prince of the galra empire. my father is Zarkon and My mother is Honvera, an altean quintessence magic user and the red paladin of old,she and King Alfor worked together and created the lions as well as the bayards." Keith tensed, searching for any lies hidden in his eyes and relaxed when he found none and they all began discussing plans as Pidge came out of her pod, escorted by Coran to her room looking a little worn out while sporting green markings on her face and green colored eyes rather then the brown color she was born with. Eventually Rigel and Lotor left and a moment later, Hunk came out of his pod with yellow markings on his skin and his brown eyes had turned yellow.

"Ugh, I had this weird dream I was climbing sand dunes and yellow was there and we were digging together then asteroids started falling down on to the ground I almost got crushed by one but I moved out of the way and then one of the asteroids split with a sparkling yellow gem in it. I remember grabbing it then I heard yellow roaring and then I woke up." Hunk explained to anyone in the medic bay.

"That wasn't a dream, number two. I'd say most likely you visited your quintessence realm. Now we're just waiting for Lance and Kylee to wake up." Coran explained and so they all waited and waited and waited until Keith was literally smoking with frustration to where he was creating feet shaped scorch marks on the floor.

"Relax, Keith. They'll wake up soon enough." Shiro reassured, although Allura frowned in concern.

"It has been quite a long time. Perhaps, I should go into one of their realms and see how they're doing."

"Whoa, you can do that?" asked Pidge who was sitting in a chair near by, curiosity in her green eyes.

"My mother taught me what she knew since she had pink quintessence like me. I know how to heal and enter other's quintessence realms. She also taught me how to purify dark quintessence but there wasn't much of it on Altea so I was only ever to purify small amounts. Coran, open Lance's pod." The advisor nodded and pressed a button, Keith and Hunk caught Lance then placed him on the examination table.

Allura stepped forward to reach out and touch the Cuban boy when suddenly the alarms went off and everyone went to the main bridge to see galra ships close by, Keith growled.

"We don't have time for this, Allura, can't you just open up a wormhole and get us out of here?" Keith asked, only to see to see a laser blast headed towards them and Coran quickly put up the particle barrier; the castle shook from the impact.

"I guess not..." He grumbled and they started to head to the hanger where the lions were kept when a blur of pink and blue caught his eye.

"Did you guys see that?" Keith asked the three other paladins who looked confused.

"Well I didn't see anything. Did you, moon cutter?" The four of them flinched and swiftly turned around to see a feminine looking male male with blue skin, matching blue rabbit ears as well as blue markings in addition to four small horns, he also had yellow sclera and rich blue eyes and he had his gloved claws pointed at Allura and Coran who were lying on the floor their bodies contorting and twisting in unnatural positions as their faces were stricken with pain filled expressions. A guy with pink skin and pink markings smirked with his scaly tail wagging lazily.

"Nope, not a thing, Aurora. Say, could you tell us where your keeping the half breed? He's got red markings like the pretty boy over here." He gestured to Keith, who growled and rush forward without thinking then flinched as he ducked out of the way as a pink crystal shot past his cheek, sticking into the metal wall behind him and Keith along with the others were quickly subdued when the one called Aurora pointed his other hand at them and moved it in sharp jerked motions, Keith felt as if some invisible force was putting his arms behind his back and forcing him as well as the three other paladins to the ground.

"Fine. Don't tell me, I'll look for it on my own." The one named Moon Cutter replied, sticking out his tongue at them, the numbers 628 shown in black.

"Keep them there, Veil. " He said to the other as he turned around and walked off, the pink crystals sliding back into his tail. Keith tried to focus through the pain, but he started to panic when he heard the sound of tearing metal.

"I found him! He's in a pod!" The Red paladin's eyes widened as heard glass shattering.

"No! Leave Him alone!" He thought as he struggled against whatever was keeping him to the floor and curled up in such a uncomfortable position, his markings started to glow the harder he fought, managing pull himself up off the ground and on his knees, red lightning coiling around him.

"Don't..you..dare touch him!" He managed to get out in a strangled tone as he released the lighting, the red electrical charge leaving his fingers and aimed at the blue skin teen who barely managed to dodge the attack. The teen's face shifted from surprise to rage as he gave a jerked hand movement and Keith felt as if his arms were forced behind his back and he was being pushed down flat on his back, Keith felt terror run through him as he was positive that any moment his spine would snap in two.

"Aurora, knock it off! Haggar never said to kill them, I got what we came for. Let's go." Keith felt his body being released from the unseen force and struggling to move quicker as he watched them run off with Kylee's unconscious body, the black veins had gotten worse.

" no! " Keith scrambled to his feet and gave chase as the two intruders headed towards the hanger. The red paladin stumbled slightly as he ran and threw a fistful of fire at them, his body moving on instinct, the two easily dodged the flames. He fell to the floor and struggled to get up again, his legs and arms screamed in protest and tears pricked at his eyes as the enemy ship left the hanger.

"No! Please!" He shouted as the enemy ship started to get more and more distance between them, he clenched his jaw to the point where it started to ache and slammed his fist into the metal floor, creating a dent in it. A few moments later, Shiro came in and helped his little brother figure up off the floor.

"Don't worry, Keith. We'll get him back." He reassured gently and Keith swallowed the lump that was starting to form in his throat.

* * *

Lance was tossed around in the icy water like a rag doll, hearing muffled thunder above as his lungs started to feel like they were on fire.

"Please, someone! Anyone, help me!" Lance thought in a panic as his lungs couldn't take it anymore and he started to intake water when suddenly he was yanked out by his jacket, he coughed and gasped, spitting up the water that had entered his lungs. He finally noticed that everything had became calm and soothing again, the water was stable enough to sit on and the water below was filled with colorful coral and sea life once more.

"So your Lance, huh? It's nice I finally get to meet you after all this time rather then just hearing about you from Blue." Lance flinched and swiftly turned to see a tall blue humanoid sea dweller being standing casual there.

"W-who are you? How did you get here in my dream?" Lance asked, his voice a little raspy.

"My name is Blaytz and I'm the blue paladin before you and this isn't a dream, lance. We're in your quintessence realm and how I got here is because you called out for me, Blue just helped me get through." Lance's eyes widened slightly

"W-we're in my quintessence realm? Does that mean I can do elemental magic like Kylee? " Blaytz nodded but Lance frowned and looked away.

"I'd probably suck at it though..." Suddenly Lance was pushed down, feeling big paws against his shoulders and a tongue against his hair, Blaytz grinned.

"Blue? " the blue glowing lioness rubbed against her current paladin before sitting next to her old one who looked at her then at Lance.

"People often over looked me because I was different but the blue lion recognized something in me, something others couldn't see. It saw the greatness within that even I did not. You, Lance, have greatness within you as well. Your so much like myself and yet so different. You're a remarkable person, don't ever forget that." Lance felt tears prick at his eyes at Blaytz's words when suddenly, dark clouds started to collect and the water started to shift and rock as it turned dark, the blue lioness faded away.

"What's going on?!" His voice filled with panicked concern.

"it's Honvera! Well, I guess you know her as Haggar, she must've forced her way into your quintessence realm somehow! "He shouted above the thunder.

"Who the heck is Honvera?!" The water swirled and out came Haggar yet her body was black with a red outline, her eyes glowed a haunting yellow. The blue paladin of old swore to himself.

"I'll tell you later! Just find your quintessence stone! I'll buy you some time, just focus on calming your realm." He called out as the blue bayard appeared in his hand shifted into a trident then charged at the intruder.

Lance swallowed and sat down on the water with his legs crossed and tried to block out the fighting in the distance and focused on his breathing until it evened out and he felt his body relax, the water no longer shifted and became still as it turned crystal clear while the sky turned blue with puffy white clouds and Lance allowed himself to sink down to the colorful color and sea life below. The Cuban boy noticed something blue and sparkly in a coral bed and swam towards it. Once he reached out and grabbed it, a powerful roar echoed through the water.

Blaytz panted, feeling exhausted as he struggled to stand. Then steeled himself and rushed forward, getting more frustrated as the witch kept dodging only to be forced back by a black and red energy blast when suddenly Lance shot out of the water like a rocket. The former blue paladin's eyes widened as he saw the blue markings that decorated the current one's skin and began to feel a sense of pride as a grin graced his lips as the human teen landed next to him.

"Get away from my friend, you old crone!" Lance shouted and raised his fist then swung as her, a massive fist of water hitting her and skidding across the surface. While doing this, a lioness made out of water appeared behind Lance.

"Now, stay out of my head!" He exclaimed, the lion roared at her, sending out icy frost which froze her into an ice statue to which Lance shattered into pieces with a water fist. Moments later, Sharks skimmed the surface and ate the chunks then swam away. The Cuban boy turned around and place a hand on the snout of the giant water wild cat.

"Thanks, blue." The creature purred then slowly dissolved into the water.

"That was pretty cool, kiddo. Just don't let it go to your head, your form could use some work." Lance frowned in confusion

"My form?" Blaytz nodded

"It's kinda just basic punches. On my planet, when we used the water, we moved as if it was moving apart of ourselves."

"So then can you teach me how you did it?" Blaytz tilted his head in thought then shrugged

"Why not? I'm not doing anything else" Lance grinned excitedly and they began practicing until the two blue paladins were feeling worn out and just listened to the waves and watched the sea life underneath with the glowing blue lioness laying nearby.

"So, who is Honvera?" Blaytz chuckled and ruffled the other's hair.

"I'll tell you some other time. If you need my advice or even just feel like you need someone to talk to, ask Blue to come get me." Blaytz then turned into sea foam that blended in with the rest of the ocean water.

* * *

"Allura, do you have any idea what that guy did to us? Like how he did it? It felt like my muscles and bones were tightening, felt like I'd snap in half at any moment." Hunk said in between the silence and clinking utensils.

"I believe...I believe he was using dark quintessence magic, water style, given the blue markings on his skin. Father told me that dark quintessence water magic users would manipulate the water in other living beings. My father wasn't able to perform magic like me and my mother but he did study it. He told me that quintessence magic has light and darkness within it. Those who chose dark quintessence magic were mentally unstable if they kept using it constantly. I imagine that Haggar must've somehow taught him dark quintessence magic. "She explained as she moved her food goo around. Everyone tensed briefly when they heard the medic bay doors open.

"How long have I been out of it?" He wondered to himself as he got out off bed, his legs a little wobbly from disuse and used the wall for support until he made it to the bathroom and looked at his blue markings on his face and around his eyes and felt a sense of pride particularly at the two on both sides of his neck, being reminded of the gills that the former blue paladin had. After straightening his hair to its regular appearance and brushing his teeth, he washed his face then changed into his normal shirt and jeans when the door slide open. He looked up to see Hunk who rushed towards him and held him in a tight embrace.

"H-Hunk...can't..breathe, buddy.." the yellow paladin quickly let go and wiped his eyes as the Cuban boy caught his breathe.

"Sorry, I'm just so happy to see you. Lance, you've been out of it for nearly three weeks. "

"Three weeks?! Oh, man. It didn't even seem that long with all that training Blaytz gave me..." Hunk raised an eyebrow

"Wait, Blaytz? You mean the paladin before you? You actually met him? That's so cool! " Lance gave a small smile.

"Yeah, he was pretty cool. " He replied as the two headed out of Lance's room and everyone brought him up to speed on what happened, although Keith looked more frustrated and sleep deprived more than usual. He looked around for Kylee but assumed the teen had gone back with the blade members that had been to the castle while he was still in his pod and felt abit of sadness wash over him but quickly shook it off.

"So, you guys wanna see how my training went with Blaytz?" Coran and Allura flinched with looks of surprise.

"You met Blaytz? How?" Both asked in unison, the teen thought for a moment.

"I think he said since he and I both have blue quintessence and both pilot Blue that he's able to enter my quintessence realm with Blue's help. But I don't know how Haggar got in since it looked like she had red quintessence..." the two Alteans exchanged looks but then quickly looked back at Lance with small smiles.

"Lance, my boy, how about you show us what Blaytz taught you?" Coran asked, his voice chipper.

"Yes, please do, Lance. I remember watching him try and teach father since he had blue scales. He'd get so frustrated when all he could manage was a simple ripple." Her voice was filled fondness.

Lance glanced at the large containers of water that were placed near by and at the bots that were on standby.

"Okay, Coran. I'm ready!" He called out as he got into his stance then the buzzer went off at the robots ran towards him, weapons at the ready. Lance acted quickly and spun in a tight circle and water followed and moved around him, he moving his arms in a graceful manner and created a water whip which lashed out and sliced through the bots that held swords and spears then he shifted his footing and flexed his fingers outward, the water that was circling around him rushed towards the last three bots and encased them in ice.

"How was that?" He called out to the six of them that were watching from the training room's observation area.

"That was amazing, Lance!" Hunk spoke over the intercom

"Yes, I agree. It was almost like watching Blaytz train again." Coran added in, Shiro took the scene he had witnessed.

"So then Blaytz's planet style of water quintessence magic technique was similar to Tai Chi. That's pretty cool." Allura and Coran raised an eyebrow

"Tai what? Is that some sort of Earth thing?" Asked the princess

"Yeah, the full name for it is Tai Chi Chuan. It's an internal Chinese martial art which is practiced for both defense training and health benefits. When Keith was younger he went through this phase where he wanted to learn martial arts so I got him a couple books of a few different versions, nothing really stuck though although it looked like you had a talent for Kung Fu." Keith lightly punched his brother figure in the arm as he tried to hide his embarrassment.


End file.
